Food Allergens in Nonfood Products

by Kelley Lindberg


If only food allergens were just in food.

It’s one thing to have to learn to read ingredients labels on the food you buy at the grocery store. But it’s crazy to realize you have to read labels for just about anything else, too. It’s surprising the places that common allergens, like nuts, eggs, milk, or gluten, will show up.

Last year, we received a cute polar bear soap dispenser as a gift. My son snatched the dispenser for his own bathroom, and I was so busy with other holiday activities I didn’t give it a second thought. Over the next few weeks, we began to notice that my son’s hands were becoming red, dry, and itchy. We couldn’t figure out what was wrong. After trying several lotions, reminding him to thoroughly rinse any soap off his hands when he washed them, and otherwise scratching our heads, I found myself standing in his bathroom one day staring at the polar bear dispenser. I had never checked its ingredients. Come to think of it, I don’t remember if it even came with a list of ingredients. I removed the dispenser from his bathroom, replaced it with some soap I know is safe, and within just a couple of days, his hands cleared up and he was back to normal. There must have been a nut oil, such as almond or macadamia nut, in the soap all along.

This time of year, gifts of soaps, lotions, and perfumes are common, so it’s a good reminder to check all labels. And if you or your child is experiencing allergic rashes you can’t get rid of, look especially hard at all of your soaps, lotions, detergents, and cosmetics.

Here are some of the unexpected places where you might find food allergens, especially nuts, milk, soy, eggs, or wheat:

• Body lotions, creams, and moisturizers
• Exfoliants
• Shampoos and conditioners
• Soap
• Shaving creams
• Makeup and cosmetics
• Nail polish fast-dry
• Household cleaners
• Toothpaste
• Dentist office toothpaste and polishes
• Vaccinations and shots (many are egg-based)
• Medications and vitamins (check both active and inactive ingredients)
• Bird seed (often contain nuts)
• Top soil (sometimes contains ground nut shells)
• Fertilizers (sometimes contain ground nut shells)
• The sand in sand & water tables (often uses crushed nut shells)
• Play-Doh (contains wheat)
• Moon Sand (contains corn starch, but the company states it does NOT contain wheat, gluten, milk, egg, casein, or peanut ingredients.)
• Paints
• Adhesives on stamps, envelopes, and stickers you have to lick (many contain wheat)
• Livestock bedding
• Pet food and treats
• Beanbags (including some beanbag chairs, hacky sacks, beanbag-type stuffed animals, and doorway draft blockers, which might contain ground nut shells)
• Ant traps and mousetraps
• Potpourris
• Scented candles

After you’ve lived with food allergies for a while, reading ingredients labels on grocery items becomes second nature. But it’s good to remember to read labels on everything your allergic family member comes into contact with, not just the things they eat.

Hidden Ingredients in Lotions

While we were in Mexico, my son and husband began calling me “Picasso.”

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking it was my natural artistic talents that earned me this nickname. My penchant for patterns. My love of colors.

You’re right. It was all of those.

Unfortunately, the canvas for my artistic endeavors was my family’s winter-white skin, and my paint was sunblock.

Every day, I would dutifully apply sunblock to myself, my son, and my husband. And every day I would miss a spot or two, which would reveal itself later that evening as another bright red patch in a place it didn’t belong. By the end of the week, we all looked like patchwork dolls pieced together from a dozen different red fabrics.

Artistic, perhaps. Smart, no. Attractive, even less so.

The resort where we stayed was quite nice, and it graciously provided a decent-sized bottle of “Gilchrist & Soames Chamomile Aloe Vera” lotion in each bathroom. As usual, there was no ingredients label on the bottle. There never is, on hotel-sized toiletries. So I don’t use those lotions on my son – I always bring my own small bottles of safe lotions and shampoos, because I never know when a manufacturer is going to use a nut oil in a cosmetic product.

I did use the lotion on my own sunburned legs, and it really felt wonderful – the aloe vera in it did the trick. I was tempted to use it on my son, because he got a bad sunburn on his cheeks, but instead I washed my hands and used my own lotion on him.

Turns out, that was the right decision.

When I got home from our vacation, I logged on to the manufacturer’s website, found a phone number, and called and talked to a very friendly and helpful woman. She didn’t have the ingredients list, but promised to track it down and email it to me.

The next day, the email arrived. Sure enough, the lotion contained sweet almond oil. Choosing NOT to use the lotion was definitely the right way to go. The lotion also contained sunflower oil and soybean oil.

I wrote back to the woman and explained that I was glad I didn’t apply the lotion to my son, because having an allergic reaction in a foreign country would be scary. I also let her know that soybean oil and almond oil represent two of the top eight food allergens that cause 90% of the reactions, and I politely asked if I could make a suggestion to include at least a small warning on their bottles about nut and soy allergies. I explained that since these lotions are found in hotels around the world, the people most likely to use them are always far from home and familiar medical help. It could be a problem.

The lovely woman promptly wrote right back and said she’d forwarded my email to her supervisor, explaining to him how serious nut allergies are for so many people, and she thanked me for taking the time to let her know.

She could have blown me off. That’s the typical response from customer service people these days. But she didn’t – she took the time to let me know she thought my idea and concern were valid.

I doubt we’ll suddenly start seeing ingredients labels on hotel bath amenities any time soon because of one little email on my part. But if we all start sending simple email requests to manufacturers whenever we encounter something like this, it might make a difference someday. I hate to think that somewhere in Mexico right now, a mom is putting lotion on her allergic child to soothe a stinging sunburn, and that simple remedy is going to make a good vacation day turn bad, when a simple label could have prevented that.

So use caution when you’re staying at a hotel, and avoid using those unlabeled toiletries. And apply sunblock twice as often as you think you need to. Unless you want to take over my role as “Picasso.”