Peanut and Tree Nut Free Shopping Guide
Nuts, when referring to food, is a collective term to describe a dry fruit with one seed with hardened walls when mature. This applies to all true nuts, such as pine nuts, cashews, almonds, macadamias, etc. Peanuts however, are in the legume family and not a tree nut. An allergy to peanuts doesn't mean an allergy to tree nuts.
At the same time, most tree nuts are in different families, as many of them are from different trees. As a result, an allergy to one tree nut doesn't necessarily mean an allergy to all nuts.
The list below provides a list of foods to avoid and is separated based on the nut type. Given the nuttiness of nut allergies, and the various families nuts fall into, it is worth checking with your doctor before deciding which, if any, nuts you can and can't eat.
Also know that many meats, such as sausage and bacon, contain nuts or were smoked over nuts. Nuts are also a popular ingredient in salad dressings, snack foods and many prepared foods. As a result, a lot of equipment used to process the food you buy has been processed on machines that also process nuts. If you aren't sure if you're food was process on a machine that also processed nuts, call the company.
The obvious ingredients include:
- Artificial nuts
- Peanuts
- Tree nuts (or specific nut name)
The not-so-obvious ingredients include (more information):
- Arachis
- Goober
- Hydrolized peanut protein
- Hydrolized vegetable protein
- Lecithin (not always from nuts)
- mandelonas
- Pindar
