Flours without nut fragments
Sadly, I am noticing that more and more of my favourite King Arthur flours and baking ingredients are now carrying the "processed on equipment that may be used to process peanuts and treenuts" warning. I assume that this is the result of the new allergy labeling law that went into effect January 1st 2006, rather than any change in processing, but it does mean that I can no longer use those flours.
Does anyone use any flour (and stuff) sources that are as good as King Arthur but are processed in nut-free facilities? So far most Bob's Red Mill products seem OK, but I would like some additional sources.
I hope that at some point King Arthur will consider splitting their processing facilities into nut-contaminated and nut-free, as one of the big candy manufacturers did two years ago.
sPh
I'm in a similar situation.
I recently noticed nut flours in the King Arthur product line, and when I asked, was advised by King Arthur that they can't guarantee that their flour lines are nut-free.
Which is tragic -- I can't imagine that nut flours are a significant part of their production, so why mess up the whole works and cut out potential clients (whose numbers seem to be growing)?
I'm going to investigate Canadian mills -- Canada tends to be ahead of the curve as regards nut-allergies (it's the only place we can get nut-free Mars bars for my boy, for example).
- Richard
www.oldwithoutmoney.com
Per their tech support group, King Arthur contracts out their bulk flour production and makes the specialty flours in their own mill. Since they process nuts in their mill everything they make there is labeled potentially contaminated. The bulk flour may or may not be contaminated depending on which contractor is used to make it. So far I have found that the bread flour and the organic whole wheat are not marked contaminated.
If you find any suppliers that are fully nut-free, esp for organics, please let us know.
sPh
FYI -
I just received a reply from Hodgson Mill -- their facility is free of peanuts and tree-nuts.
I'm still awaiting word from sources in the Great White North (a.k.a. Canada).
Cheers,
- Richard
www.oldwithoutmoney.com