This weekend I discovered a couple of things my son can't eat because of his egg allergies... just about anything from Pizza Hut and just about anything from Trader Joe's.
If a machine makes egg burritos, then veggie burritos, they have to note on the veggie burrito label that the machine that made them also processes egg. Normally, they clean the machines pretty thoroughly, but if they screw up, someone with an egg allergy could eat that veggie burrito, thinking it was safe, and end up in the hospital with their throat swelling shut.
So, before I feed my kid anything, I always have to check the ingredients not just for eggs, but to see if the food was potentially exposed to eggs. We were going to try that new pasta from Pizza Hut, so we checked the allergen information. Half of their dough choices, all of their sauces, and five out of their seven meat options all either have potential egg exposure or have egg in them. So Pizza Hut is now banned from my house.
But Trader Joe's just shocked me. A package of pre-cooked pot roast... not even with gravy. Just a vacuum sealed lump of pot roast. Potential egg exposure.
Banana chips... Potential egg exposure.
A can of black beans... Potential egg exposure.
A package of refrigerated soybeans in the shell... Potential egg exposure.
When you go into Trader Joe's, finding a prepared item that's safe for someone with allergies is an adventure. And if you're a Vegan, you better think twice about Trader Joes.
It annoyed me when I couldn't buy a single type of Oroweat bread because they refuse to segregate the few products they make with egg from all their products that could otherwise be considered egg free. But to find an entire supermarket that's an eggy landmine... I won't be going back to Trader Joe's for a while.
Sigh.
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