Curious, how many people with a PA tolerate/trust peanut oil?

FAS has upgraded our forum security. Some members may need to log in again. If you are unable to remember your login information, please email food.allergy.supt@flash.net and we will help you get back in. Thanks for your patience!

gvmom:
I guess I'm just getting tired of feeling like some paranoid hypochondriac.

Why are you feeling like that?

When it comes to LTFA's we have always had the policy that no food is more important than someone's life. The need to be safe & alive outweighs wants that are optional or someone else rolling their eyes.

And, we have typically learned that so-called experts on food allergies know very little compared to people who actually live with them.

Frankly, if the FDA really did care about food safety, they'd be more pro-active and have more requirements about the real information that should be on packaging.

Taking it further, I'd actually prefer it if the whole concept of "comfort zones" with respect to food allergies actually was more accurately titled "risk assessment" or "risk management".

How much risk are you willing to take with your life to find out if you are going to eat things cooked in peanut oil? How much risk are you willing to take in deciding what you eat based on the amount of information you are able to find, and who that information comes from, with respect to PA individuals and their ability to ingest peanut oil?

Because, effectively, the "comfort zone" is really how comfortable you are taking a risk with whatever odds that come with a given situation or food.

Macabre:
My son had a bad reaction after eating chips fried in "safe" peanut oil at Panera around 2003. He also got hives after eating at CFA when he was a toddler. He actually used to cry when I pulled up to CFA, so I have it a rest for the better part of a year and when I went back, he had hives where the chicken strips made contact with his face.

He's 19 now. We don't do regular peanut oil.

YouKnowWho:
We don't do peanut oil but my kids get the grilled nuggets and french fries (fried in canola oil, not peanut). CFA is not a regular thing for us but it has definitely saved us in locations that there are not safe options. But I am also dealing with more than just peanut allergies and find it often harder to feed my kid who is allergic to wheat, rye, barley and egg. It is one of the few places where he can have french fries.

For various reasons though, I hate giving them my money. Hence the emergency only option.

StridAst:
Agreed on avoiding chic-fil-a for reasons beyond allergic reasons. Are you saying they always fry their french fries in canola oil? Interesting. I've been avoiding even french fries for a couple years now, due to pretty much everywhere uses soybean oil.

Soy and sunflower is a *really* tough mix to avoid. (So I have real sympathy to your DD on that account). Mostly I have just been trying to decide if I should really be this strict on avoiding things. With soybean, sunflower, safflower, and peanut, that's a lot of oils to avoid. Toss in onion and garlic and you can imagine how often I eat out these days. But I was avoiding chic-fil-a for a couple years before the allergy stuff really started for me. My wife and daughter like them though, and since I've reacted to trace amounts of peanuts before, I try to have them wash their hands immediately, don't eat in the car, etc. So I feel like I'm being paranoid about peanuts, especially because of the FDA claims about highly refined oils.