I absolutely love when companies explain how they avoid cross contamination as far as allergens are concerned. Apart from King Arthur Flour, which makes all of their allergen-free products in a separate facility, most companies either are completely allergen-free or have the “made in a facility which processes…” blurb on their label.
Luna & Larry’s Organic Coconut Bliss found a happy medium. If you aren’t privy to this magic, Coconut Bliss is a brand of ice cream made with coconut milk for those who are unable to eat dairy or soy. Now that the weather has been warming up, my boyfriend and I have been tearing our way through the flavors. I was poking around on their FAQ page and happened to see the question “is Luna & Larry’s Coconut Bliss processed on ‘shared equipment’?” It turns out that yes, they do share equipment for processing flavors with allergens; however they have a very intricate process for making sure that there isn’t any cross-contamination.
First they schedule their processing so that no dairy or soy will be in the plant and they clearly label and store all nuts and other potential allergens for their flavors in a separate area from their other ingredients and only move them onto the production floor when they are ready to make a flavor with ingredients. They also only make the nut and other allergen-containing flavors at the end of the day, so that there isn’t any potential for contamination. At the end of the production day, dismantle wash, and inspect the equipment. The next morning it is inspected again, and then sanitized and rinsed.
I absolutely love this methodical approach. I also love that they detailed it on their website (trust me, you got the short version). I get the feeling that most other companies would simply say “Yes, but we make sure to clean all equipment after making an allergen-containing flavor”. Sure, that would suffice, but Coconut Bliss went a step beyond.
For those of you who are curious, I highly recommend Coconut Bliss. The coconut flavor isn’t overwhelming and doesn’t taste like you’re “eating sunscreen”, as my mom would have it. I have only tried a few of their flavors but they have been excellent so far!
(image from here)
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