Recently, a fan of the Onespot Allergy Facebook page wrote in that starting six months ago, her son who is allergic to peanuts/tree nuts/ dairy/soy/peas has been having random itching mouth reactions to Rice Dream® . She brought the milk to the allergist to do a skin test and her son reacted, even more so to the juice box style carton. Her son is not allergic to any of the ingredients listed.
Here is the problem. Companies only have to disclose allergens that are actually part of the recipe. They don’t have to disclose if the top allergens are in the facility, or even if they’re used in products made on the same line. Some companies do include these optional “may contain” statements, but most do not. When there are not may contain statements, it’s necessary to call the company to check on these issues. Unfortunately, no allergen information is included on their website www.hain-celestial.ca.
I’ve trusted Rice Dream and served it to my peanut/tree nut allergic son for years. I’m certain I was told by Hain Celestial reps at a Health Food Expo that Rice Dream is made in its own facility. This is NOT correct.
I confirmed with the company that there are no designated facilities, and all products are made on shared equipment. This means that oats from Oat Dream or almonds from Almond Dream or soy from Soy Dream could contaminate Rice Dream. For those using Rice Dream thinking it’s gluten free, most commercial oats are cross-contaminated with wheat, barley and/or rye during harvesting, transportation, storage, milling, processing and packaging.
I was assured that Hain-Celestial makes attempts to control the allergens through strict manufacturing processes. Specifically, procedures are in place requiring all of their manufacturing facilities to follow rigid allergen control programs that include staff training, segregation of allergen ingredients, production scheduling, and thorough cleaning and sanitation.
UPDATE: A recall of Silk Light Original Soymilk occurred in May of 2014 because the cartons contained ALMOND milk instead of soy milk. Details are here: http://silk.com/recall?utm_medium=email&utm_source=et&utm_campaign=S60J2
The allergen policies of milk packaging companies may satisfy some consumers, but in my house we don’t use products if my son’s allergen is used in the facility. In this case, it’s even used on the same line. The reactions my reader’s child has been having is convincing evidence that the procedures in place are not always sufficient to eliminate all traces of the allergens. Every batch may be different, and perhaps that’s why we’ve used Rice Dream without issue, and my reader’s son’s experienced itchy mouth only intermittently. Now that I know about this issue, this is not a chance I want to take, so from now on I’ll be making my own rice milk. Below is a recipe I found on www.veganreader.com. I now cut the recipe in half, which gives me the two liters of rice milk we use per week.
How To Make Rice Milk
Mesh strainer
You will end up with something that looks a bit like a soupy rice pudding. Add the salt.
In batches, fill your blender with 1 cup of the rice mixture and two cups of water. Blend until very smooth. Strain twice through a fine mesh strainer into a mason jar. Continue with the rest of the milk until you’re finished, filling jars and screwing the lids on tight. Keep refrigerated.
Optional Additions To Your Rice Milk Recipe
Add 2 tablespoons of organic sunflower oil to the milk to make it creamier.
Add 4 tablespoons of maple syrup to the milk to mimic the sweeter taste of Rice Dream. I find I need 8 tablespoons (about 1/2 a cup) to get the correct taste, but you might like your less sweet.
I’m now making hemp milk instead of rice milk (it’s so much easier). Just soak 1/4 cup of shelled hemp seeds in 4 cups of water overnight, then blend for 2 minutes and serve. No straining is needed. I like the milk plain, but you can flavor with maple syrup, salt, or add dates.
I found your website while searching for a way to report my son’s
anaphylactic reaction to Silk Light Chocolate Soy Milk. He is peanut allergic. We avoid nuts but Silk claims their equipment is cleaned and checked for cross contaminants before each switch (from almond to soy milk). When my son was recently in the care of his Grandmother, he drank some of the Silk and immediately developed throat and gastrointestinal symptoms. His grandmother gave him the EpiPen and drove him to the ER. Thankfully he’s fine now, but I wanted to share this with others in the food allergy community. My son is 8. This happened last Friday. Thank you for what you’re doing to help spread awareness.
Love this! I have 4 little kids – 1, 2, 2, and 5 – would you suggest I make my own even though it isn’t enriched? How easy is it to fit in other foods to get the missed enrichments?
Thanks so much for posting this!
Whitney
Amy from Oz…its nearly IMPOSSIBLE to find ANYTHING that is both nut aaand gluten free in the states …I knew Canada is amazing with allergy regs n allergy free establishments, but I didn’t kno AUS was too! Anotr reason to luv the Ausies! ! Um gonna check Freedom Foods..thanx 🙂
Yup! Silk and Pacific are the same way, so BE CAREFUL!! If you are ok with soy(and coconut), So Delicious us a wonderful company.. also, Manitoba Harvest’s Hemp milk…they ONLY produce hemp and hemp alone!
Thank you for getting this message out. Time and time again I read stories or come across parents that are totally unaware of what packaging information is law/standard and what is voluntary (in Australia) and it seems to be the same where you are.
Our ANA to nuts daughter was recently diagnosed with Coeliac Disease and EoE. We thought we had found a safe bread on the supermarket shelf based on the labeling, but upon contacting the manufacturer we realised that it was unsafe to give her. She had consumed an entire loaf by then, which most parents would take as a sign it is okay. But what I have always been told, JUST BECAUSE THEY CONSUME SOMETHING ONCE AND THEY ARE OKAY, DOESN’T MEAN THEY WILL ALWAYS BE OKAY WITH IT.
Question, is it difficult to find gluten and nut free rice milk there? That is one thing I can obtain easily thank goodness. I know one company FREEDOM FOODS do a few allergy friendly milks in the long life style cartons and I Think they export as well. Might be something you can look into.
Thanks so much for this info! I posted recipes for alternative “milk” on my blog recently because #1 – packaged foods are expensive and #2 – my daughter’s skin breaks out after 1-2 days of drinking any store-bought alternative “milk.” We still have not identified all of my daughter’s allergies and these food processing practices are making it more and more difficult to get to the root cause of her suffering. It is so hard to keep my children safe in this era of big business. I will link to this article on my blog!
Wow. Sure they’re making a product and don’t have to let people know about the allergens, but they have to realize they’re making a product that many people use to substitute milk. Most of those people have other food allergies as well. They just lost our business, shouldn’t have it because of the other allergens as well.
Wow! Not good! We use rice milk in cooking all the time! Ugh! Does anyone know something I don’t about Pacific brand foods? We use their oat milk.
Thank you so much for this post. We are thankful that our daughter is not allergic to soy, but we had used Silk Soy Milk for years until they started making Almond Milk on the same line. We had been told by our allergist to avoid all nuts since her allergy to milk was so severe and they didn’t know what her reaction might be. When we redid skin testing a few years later her skin weal reaction to Almond was really large and we didn’t even think she had been exposed to it. Shortly after that Silk did post the “may contain traces of almonds” on their products so we found out where the exposure came from! I hope this can help others, Kerri
Thank you so much for this post. My daughter is allergic to peanut, tree nut, egg, soy, peas, chickpeas and legumes. We have used Rice Dream Rice Milk for 6 years!!! Thankfully she has never had a reaction or complaint associated with it but now I’m concerned that reactions I have associated with other things may actually have been from the rice milk. We will have to do some hard thinking around here to determine if we will continue to use it or not. Other brands are also cross contaminated but lable for it. sigh…big business can really make it challenging to manage food allergies.
Thank you for posting this! I will have to try homemade rice milk!
Remember though, that making your own rice milk means you will be missing the added ingredients that enrich the store bought rice milk (like calcium), so be sure to fit those nutrients into your diet in other places! Of course, with the money you save making your own, you can afford to buy additional foods to supplement! lol