Ice Cream

[EmilyAnn]

My son is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. Someone mentioned in another post that Frosties from Wendys are safe. What about the hot fudge sundaes at McDonalds? The soft serve at Krispy Kreme? What other kinds of ice cream are safe? Any brands I can buy at the grocery store?

[CMdeux]

There are some people here who trust Breyer's vanilla and some who trust Blue BELL (not "Bunny") vanilla...

but you should probably be aware that no US manufacturer runs dedicated lines-- so any ice cream that you can buy in a store will be run on shared lines with tree nuts and peanuts.

Unfortunately, this doesn't really help in terms of decision-making.  Sorry about that.  We, personally, do not trust manufacturers to be able to deliver a low-enough-risk product under those conditions, no matter how good their intent.  Examine recalls for a few months back, and it becomes pretty obvious that ice cream is a VERY high risk item.

Soft serve from Wendy's is generally safe.  Soft serve in other establishments may or may not be, depending upon how other products (mix-ins, etc) are handled and whether or not there is contamination occurring.  (Does the spout touch mix-ins-- ever?)

[Macabre]

We let DS have soft serve from McD's. He is PA.  On accession if we are inside a Mc's and we can talk to them he will have a hot fudge/caramel sundae. BUT--the staff has to wash first and NOT pick up that little packet of peanuts. If they do that, the deal is off.

Other places that just have a soft serve machine we generally trust (like at Dickey's BBQ). 

We trust Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla. IMMV. But it is run 24/7 and so most of the time is on dedicated equipment--but not truly dedicated. But practically so. We've not had a problem, but I cannot say that we won't or you won't.  But we trust it (and we've seen them take apart a fair amount of the equipment) 

We've bought Breyer's. About two or three years ago someone in our community posted about a reaction. But to my knowledge they did not send the rest of it to FAARP, a lab that will test for the presence of an allergen for free.

Many here have the Cuisinart ice cream maker.  It is easy and fast!  It's about $50 and worth every penny.

[Jessica]

We don't trust McD's for anything. The one here has reese's flurries and when I asked them what they do to avoid cross contamination, they had no idea what I was talking about. DD has has Wendy's frosties with no problems, and also BK Shakes (according to the worker they use the same "mix" for the shakes and the soft serve). From the store, we buy Ben & Jerry's and Breyer's plain vanilla (lactose free-my two NKA kids are lactose intolerant). PA/TNA DD  mostly eats the Ben & Jerry's-otherwise I would probably buy blue bell for her. I hate that blue bell has HFCS though. It's always something.

[becca]

I did not know that Ben and Jerry's is considered safe by some.  Is it only the vanilla you use, Jessica? 

I think we have a looser comfort zone wrt ice creams than many here.  Yet, the Ben and Jerry's makes me twitchy because of all the variety of mix ins.  We use Breyers, and we use Edys, sometimes Hood vanilla.  Try to stick to pretty plain flavors.  Ice cream is really one of those things you need to call and decide.  Dd has never reacted and eats ice cream almost daily.  She is PA/TNA.

[Jessica]

We use any flavor of B&J that doesn't have any nut in it. I admit, it makes me nervous. We started using it based on posts at the old board (not the original pa.com but the one right before this) and so far, knock on wood, no problems.

Edy's, on the other hand, makes me nervous. Because they don't consider peanut oil to be an allergen and I know that it isn't for some. DD's allergist says to avoid it. He's had too many of his patients react to foods w/ peanut oil in them.

[becca]

Hmmm, well, maybe we need to add Ben And Jerry's to our safe list.  I was just browsing the flavors on their website and they do label if a mix in is on shared equipment with nuts, like a toffee or cookie or something.  The eggs used to keep me away, but that is not a problem any longer. 

we do not buy any Edys flavor that has any peanut ingredient, oil or otherwise.  I have never seen peanut oil as an ingredient in any of our flavors we use.  I will have to watch for that, thanks.

[PurpleCat]

We use:

Breyers - vanilla, chocolate, coffee and fudge swirl

Soft Serve - at McDonald's and a couple local ice cream shops that are careful and caring of our issues.

Novelties - popscicle, blue bunny - their allergen info online is a huge help determining which of their items are safe, edy's fruit bars, philly swirl, minutemade lemonade, hoodsie cups

[Jessica]

We use:

Breyers - vanilla, chocolate, coffee and fudge swirl

Soft Serve - at McDonald's and a couple local ice cream shops that are careful and caring of our issues.

Novelties - popscicle, blue bunny - their allergen info online is a huge help determining which of their items are safe, edy's fruit bars, philly swirl, minutemade lemonade, hoodsie cups

What allergens do you avoid?

[hezzier]

So I went down a worm hole on FB and ended up at a post talking about how Breyer's had changed their policy.  Anyone have any info on this? 

The worm hole eventually ended here...(first time I've read anything on their site)
http://snacksafely.com/2014/02/update-to-safe-snack-guide-february-18-2014/

Now for all I know, Breyers has been this way the whole time and hasn't been an issue.  We only use Breyer's Natural Vanilla and we don't eat ice cream in the winter (too cold), plus DD mentioned the other day that we should get back to making our own.

[GoingNuts]

I take serious issue with your post Hezz.

It's never too cold for ice cream.  Never.

Carry on.

[Macabre]

One of our NOVA members (her user name is escaping me--was once upon a time Zuzumom or something like that, but it changed) had a child who reacted to (I believe) Breyer's vanilla bean.  I don't know if she ever sent it to be tested. 

We've had some of it since then, but rarely. 

[Jessica]

I don't think Breyer's has ever claimed to test lines.

[spacecanada]

Do they have Chapman's ice cream in America?
Many of their frozen desserts are made in their PN/TN-free facility and labelled as such:
http://www.chapmans.ca/HealthAndAllergies/PeanutNutFree

[Jessica]

If they do it's in a very limited area (maybe northern US or new england area? )