I started life with Chicken/Turkey allergies (4 or 5 years old).  As I've gotten older (developing in my twenties), I've become allergic to many other foods, such as eggs, treenuts, catfish, cod-fish, bananas, lentils and kiwi.  I've even suffered small reactions as of lately to wheat and soy (in my thirties).  They seem to be putting chicken broth in more and more foods nowadays.  I have to be really careful what I eat.  I break out in hives with treenuts, but poultry nearly puts me in anaphylaxis.  I'm worried what I'll be allergic to tomorrow.  I do not think I have any outside allergies...however, I haven't been tested, but do not feel bad outside.

The crockpot broth is a great idea! Thanks, CM.
And I'd wondered about the yeast too, krasota. But I bake bread regularly here (using yeast) and she hasn't had a problem with it. Or does baking with yeast change it in a way that it wouldn't provoke a reaction as a yeast ingredient in broth might?

She does have a very low threshold for egg. She's anaphylaxed to taffy, ice cream and pudding, and reacted now to both parmesan cheese (unlabeled lysozyme) and chicken broth. Her allergist is very pessimistic about her ever outgrowing this allergy, given her RAST numbers and her history, but I'm still hoping science catches up to her and the kids with similar allergies.

Yeast extract is a histamine containing food or a histamine trigger.  If her bucket were full, so to speak, it could be a contributing factor.

It takes a long time to come to a place where you can live with risk and still 'live' at all, that's how.   

Wheat, soy and milk are nightmare allergens, but egg isn't far behind, frankly-- and with a low enough threshold, it's as bad as any of them.

It's just in everything processed.  The truth is that you eventually learn that some things are just plain too good to be true-- no matter what ANY customer service rep says.  I don't actually pay all that much attention to labeling at this point.  Of course, I avoid things that bear advisory labeling.  But I avoid a lot of other things, too.  Even companies that I otherwise trust-- there are some things that I won't touch, no matter whose name is on the packaging.  Ice cream, packaged seasoning mixes and shelf-stable soups/ricemilk are those things for nuts, and bread/soup are on the list for egg.

You can make broth in a crockpot once a week or so-- or even just on an as-needed basis (put ingredients in the morning you'll need it and then it's ready when you're ready to start dinner).  BTDT.

YKW--your poor son! That swelling looks awful. Thanks, everybody. There wasn't any bread; she only had a cup of broth. She reacted immediately after a few spoonfuls.
I just got off the phone with the allergist, who was returning my call (I'd spoken with his nurse prior.) He thinks the broth must have been contaminated with egg. He thinks it definitely WAS an allergic reaction, given her symptoms of itchy lips, tongue and throat, and doesn't think yeast, carrots or onions would be the culprits.
I am already baking our bread, I suppose I can making big batches of chicken and vegetable broth, too, and freeze them.

I don't know how you folks living with MFA do this. We've had to cross off so many categories of food because of this allergy.  We don't eat out, either. It's frustrating that a ten-minute Q&A session with a dietitian at the food company wouldn't be sufficient. Argh.

I finally remembered where the picture/story was.  Reaction or not?

He never said itchy, he said funny.  However with DS2 and his issues - funny could equal itchy.

I agree with the others here-- particularly TT's analysis utilizing Occam's Razor.

There is no food without risk-- just some risks much lower than others. 

If you know that her threshold is very low, then that means that everything is on the table (so to speak) as a cause.  In that case, I also agree with Maeve that bread is a likely culprit.  This is the reason why we've never been able to use store-bought bread (and for many years, pasta).  I don't use preprepared broths for the reason you covered-- too many of them are run on shared lines for my comfort zone, frankly.  I do use Better-than-Bouillion, even though there is some risk there for me personally given that they make a variety which is potentially SF-contaminated.  My threshold is higher than DD's, so the risk-benefit for us personally works better there.


Since the symptoms were subjective rather than objective, too, it's possible that like YKW's DS2, this wasn't specifically IgE-driven, but was something else entirely; either thermal or texture, or-- well, something.  Salt?

Anything on DD's face can still give her wicked hives from contact.  It doesn't need to be especially acidic, nor does it need to contain an allergen.   

Are you sure it was the broth?  Could it have been the bread?  To me that would have been an even more likely culprit.

BTW, I've used Kitchen Basics chicken stock without issue for my EA, PA, and TNA DD.  I like that I can purchase an unsalted version, which significantly cuts back on the sodium in it.

ETA:  It appears as if McCormick now owns Kitchen Basics.

I guess there's two principles I wish to impart in response to the original query.

The first is that there is no such thing as no potential for contamination in food manufacturing it's a continuum of risk. Rather than interpret that as right/wrong I find it more useful in light of occam's razor that the simplest answer is most likely correct. And when in doubt with a product for contamination consider testing the rest and possible recall. And if you look at a lot of recalls like I do (we deal with 7 regulated allergens plus others) many times the products are put in incorrect packaging.

All I'm saying is that this is a much more common, unfortunately, than expected. Nothing more. I might be encouraging you to be more suspicious perhaps?

They're corporate. If you call Kroger's consumer relations number with a food allergy question, they typically transfer you to a dietitian who has more detailed information about the manufacturing process of that particular product. I get a lot more information from Kroger than I do most food companies.

What's a Kroger dietitian? Is this a Kroger retail employee or corporate/manufacturing?

Twinturbo, she was a Kroger dietitian. Soup is one of those categories of foods that is a bear for a kid with an egg allergy, as so many prepared soups and soup mixes contain either egg or egg noodles, etc. I always call and ask questions. She said that the broth is not prepared on a line that handles eggs, so there would be no potential for cross contamination there. Nothing is foolproof, of course, unless you make it yourself, but making broth is time-consuming, and I was glad to find a commercial product that appeared safe to use.

With this reaction, if that's what it was, she never developed any hives or swelling, just complained  of that itchy feeling in her lips, mouth and throat. She did have that with her ana episode a  few years ago, but also had incredible swelling, was very hoarse, etc. If I'd seen any of that, I would have Epi'd her. But it never progressed beyond the itchiness. Because it happened within seconds of eating the broth, I'm still suspicious that there was something there that she was allergic to, so we'll investigate it further, and will avoid the broth 'til we nail it down.

Quote from: eggallergymom on November 21, 2012, 07:20:03 PM
I use it because I've spoken with a dietitian at length about their production process, and there appears to be no potential for contamination with egg in the production process.

Puzzle piece not fitting for me here. Considering it's always possible a manufactured food is contaminated how would
(1) a dietitian know about the manufacturer's current production process(es)?
(2) guarantee said product free of a specific allergen even by unintentional contamination?

Of course there may be some pivotal factor I'm not privy to or misunderstood such as the dietitian is actually in the employ of the manufacturer and therefore a current representative of the company, even then it would be still possible at any time to be contaminated.

DS2 was finally diagnosed as having uticaria.

We went through two summers of full body hives on and off (pool but not chemical related because we switched to salt water filtration) and has this wonky thing with chicken broth specifically.  I use the same brand 2-3 times a week (we like soups) and whenever I made chicken soup, his lip would swell to proportions that rivaled Angelina Jolie.  Even my allergist dropped his jaw when he saw the pic.  (I would post but DH seems to have blocked the site for some reason).

Makes sense though because the chicken soup is always served hotter than the other soups that I make because I prefer it hot and my daughter won't eat. 

Benadryl had little effect on his lip or full body hives.  Time is the only thing that helps that though allergist was confident Epi would take care of but be a bit of overkill.

mushroom allergy, I think?

Or mystery edema... that may be the ultimate explanation.  Speaking about YKW's DS2, I mean.