While it's true that no food can truly be allergy free since we all suffer from different food allergies, I think this list is a great start. It is important to consider your sensitivity level when eating any processed food, especially those claiming to be allergy friendly. For my allergies, I find that the Surf brand are a great compromise for me and do not cause any outbreaks. I also discovered another brand at Whole Foods called Torie & Howard. They make organic fruit chews ( which...
Hi, @sarymary715 . Thank you for asking about Skittles and Starburst. We were able to re-verify that Skittles and Starbursts are free of the top eight food allergens and have added them back to the list.
This is great. I get a few hundred kids every Halloween, my neighborhood is a madhouse! I will definitely be participating in Teal-O-Ween this year. Thanks for these ideas for non-food items to handout and accompanying resources so more kids can feel included in Trick or Treating.
Welcome, Eidelmanr! You can order the KFA Tealoween Kit and get it in time for this year's Halloween if you order by Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2019, by 4:30 p.m. ET. You can still order after this time but you may not receive in time for Halloween due to demand. And don't forget to check out KFA's 2019 Allergy-Friendly Halloween Candy Guide !
We officially moved into the country but our home town has a spooktacular festival the week before Halloween. I would really like to bring this tradition to my community. I think I am going to put a letter to the community in our local paper about the teal pumpkin project and then see if I can get donations for local businesses to do teal pumpkins during the festival so that people will also see it there and raise some awareness before Halloween. I am pretty late in doing this. hopefully it...
I am excited to see skittles, starbursts and lifesavers on here! Did anyone confirm whether or not they have dedicated top 8 free equipment also? Or was this list compiled using ingredient lists only? I know I should call them myself...just wanting to know the criteria used for the list. Thanks!
Hi! Some companies on the list use dedicated equipment, and some may not - we always advise families to check if that is a concern, and we wanted to provide as much variety as possible. The number for Wrigley is 1-800-Wrigley, it seems, and they say to call for the most updated info. I hope you have a Happy Halloween!
It's cool to see a good list that a few companies use real ingredients to make their candy. I know I appreciate it for sure and can imagine more people do as well! When we have certain food sensitivities/allergies, it's really helped me & many other parents & their children when we eliminated the artificial "junk" from our diets, since in every case from these people their health has increased. I am curious to know why the importance of making sure a trace bit of refined soy oil is...
Benjamin - we note the trace of soy oil because it is not required to be labeled. However there are some people with soy allergy who do react even to highly refined soy oil. As for the other ingredients, Kids With Food Allergies goal is to provide information on the safety of food with regard to allergens. We leave it up to families to make the decision about whether any particular food or product meets their family's standards.
The YUM Earth Fruit Snacks are NOT Top 8 free. The last pack I purchased (and I just checked an ingredient listing linked from the Yum Earth website on iHerb.com as well) shows wheat starch in the ingredients. Yum Earth's website says the starch is processed enough to give them "Gluten Free" certification, but Gluten Free is not Wheat Free when you're living with ige mediated wheat allergy. May be safe for some celiacs, but certainly not Top 8 Free.
Thanks for catching that Dinamet7. We've removed Fruit Snacks from the list. Only the Fruit Snacks use wheat as a processing aid. The licorice is made with glucose syrup made from wheat.
Thank you so much for including our Red Bird Candies on your list! I saw that you included our Dark Chocolate Covered Peppermint Mini Puffs and they are delicious BUT they do have "Anhydrous Milkfat" and "Soy Lecithin" in the chocolate so we just wanted to point that out. Keep up the good work!
Mondelez seems to have gotten the message, or maybe there is someone keeping track of all of the dairy,egg, pn and tn free candy being bought! Today I found big bags of the following combinations that are safe for us: -Skittles and Starbursts -Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish and Oreo minis -Twizzlers and Jolly Ranchers My work is now done!
Awesome list! Are all of these top-8 free facility produced as well? I know some are, but wasn't sure which ones may pose a x-contam issue for our allergy set.
Hi @Dinamet7 - the candies listed are all free of the top-8 allergens and we've listed potential cross contamination issues where we are aware of them. Some companies do state that their facility is free of allergens. This list is provided as a guide and we recommend that parents follow up with the manufacturer for any specific manufacturing questions to verify that it fits their family's needs.
@KidsWithFoodAllergies I actually found the Halloween Shaped Organic Lollipops made by Wholesome Organic Candy (not the Surf Sweets brand - even on the website it's not Surf Sweets brand, although they're listed under Surf Sweets on this list) in store and there was a "manufactured in a shared facility with" statement on the bag. Since this post is sponsored by Surf Sweets, can you clarify? It seems the Wholesome Organic Candies are made in a different facility than the Surf Sweets candies...
None of the candies on this list are allergy-free. There is no such thing as allergy-free. If you really want to make sure no kid is left out, offer traditional chocolate candy bars that 96% of the population can eat, and have a small bag of these so-called "allergy free" ones to the side for the other 4%. Unless you want to spend November 1st cleaning loads of non-allergy-free eggs off of your windows.
@the world This is not an allergen free list, you'll want to re-read the title because it's "Top-8 Allergen Free" which specifically refers to the FDA's list of Top 8 Allergenic foods as identified by law (Milk, Eggs, Fish, Crustacean shellfish, Tree nuts, Peanuts, Wheat, Soybeans.) KFA definitely knows there's no such thing as an allergen free candy, you misread the post. And FWIW, I've offered non food treats (toys) and candy every year at Halloween for the last 4 years. No eggs...
Congratulations to the winners of our 9th annual Halloween photo parade! Our grand prize winner, Bryson, will receive a $300 Visa ® gift card courtesy of So Delicious ® Dairy Free. Our runners-up will each receive 10 VIP coupons from So Delicious Dairy Free. We thank So Delicious Dairy Free for their continuing support of Kids With Food Allergies! And thanks to everyone who shared their photos to support KFA. So Delicious is making a very generous donation of $3000!
You're invited to participate in our 8th annual Halloween costume parade! Show us how you safely celebrate Halloween - add photos of your costumes, your teal pumpkins or your Halloween parties . You could win one of five fantastic allergy-friendly prizes! Winners will be selected on Halloween night and we have 5 grand prizes to giveaway sponsored by Enjoy Life, Surf Sweets, Divvies, Cybele's Free to Eat, and Allermates. You must be a registered member of the Kids With Food Allergies...
What are some other ways people deal with Halloween? I don't think this teal thing should stop by any means, but I am having a hard time seeing it as a widely accepted solution. I have a peanut/treenut allergic kid and I have very mixed emotions... On the one hand, I like the added awareness, but on the other hand... I think this might be expecting too much . In our town, some neighborhoods get hundreds of kids and per item non-food stuff can get expensive. Plus, I really don't want my...
Hi RW! Some people keep the cost down by ordering bulk non-food treats online, or by giving kids a choice and asking, especially if the parents are nearby. Have you also seen this year's post on craft ideas ... You could also bake a fun safe-for-you cake . My preteen just likes being with his friends, for the most part. I like the idea of donating extra candy to volunteers in your town. Some dentists have always collected it in exchange for something...
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