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Prepping Your Living Space

Get separate utensils for your food; find a different place to put your food – away from where it may end up with cross contamination. Always wash and rinse your plates and glasses yourself, it’s better to be safe than sorry. If you’re allergic to smells, the next step is to get rid of any and all foods that may contain that smell in them. e.g. if you’re allergic to peanuts, ask someone to get rid of the peanut butter, any Reese chocolates etc., 


It’s always a good idea to tie the food you’re going to throw away before you put it into the garbage bin. This will ensure that the smell is contained in the bag and not floating in the air. Once a protein is in the air, it takes hours for it to be aired out of the area. Even if the smell is gone, if the proteins remain, you can still react. There were cases I read about when a person ate peanuts on a plane and hours later on the next flight someone had anaphylaxis because the protein was still in the air.

Cross Contamination 

Cross contamination is when a “food challenged” person uses an object that has been in contact with a food allergen that causes him/her to experience an allergic reaction.

The best example I can give you of this is the story that I heard at one of the Mississauga Anaphylactic associations meetings that I attended.
Picture this…

A little girl at a summer camp uses a butter knife to spread peanut butter on here bread. She then wipes the knife with a tissue, and then leaves it on the counter for the next child to use. The next child just happens to be a little boy that has anaphylaxis to Peanuts. Unaware that the previous girl used peanut butter on her bread, he takes the same knife and uses it to spread grape jelly onto his bread. Unfortunately, the boy ends up having a severe anaphylactic reaction due to the little amount of peanut residue that was left on the knife.

So as you can see cross contamination is a very dangerous think, as it can cause an anaphylactic reaction. And from personal experience, it can take quite sometime to fully recover from this type of a reaction.

These are 2 ways to prevent an cross contamination:
1)       Thoroughly sanitize all kitchen utensils and appliances in the kitchen before preparing to cook anything.
2)       Keep a completely separate kitchen set for you. This includes large and small appliances, utensils, cooking and dinnerware.

Taking these precautions is especially important if you share your kitchen with individuals that do consume foods that contain the food allergen that you have been challenged with.

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