Could latex gloves be connected to produce reactions?

Many people on the corn avoiders forum have mentioned that they have problems with store-bought strawberries, while having no trouble with strawberries they picked themselves.

My daughter (who has eaten home-picked strawberries without reaction, but is allergic to a number of other things including corn and soy) had an allergic reaction to strawberries this past weekend. So I called Cal-Cel Marketing, the grower of the strawberries she reacted to.

The lady who answered the phone seemed very unconcerned and told me that she couldn't give me any information or help me at all. But I insisted on leaving my name and telephone number, and asked her to at least let the management know that my child had a reaction to the berries.

Within an hour or so, I received a telephone call from someone at Cal-Cel. He was very helpful and concerned, and thanked me for letting them know of the issue.

He told me that the strawberries are not washed or treated with anything at all, because this damages the berries and makes them soggy. Any fertilizer or treatment in the field has a required lag time between treatment and picking. The pickers wear latex gloves, and the berries go right into the cartons.

He said that Wal-Mart (the distributor where I bought the berries) is encouraging them to use corn-based plastic for the clamshells, but Cal-Cel hasn't even started testing that or moving that direction yet.

He was going to do a bit of research about what fertilizers, etc. might be used on the berries in the fields and whether that would have any corn or soy derivatives. I forgot to ask him about the possibility of genetic engineering introducing corn or soy proteins to the strawberries.

Since Baby E is allergic to many fruits that cross-react with latex, and latex gloves are usually dusted with cornstarch, it seems at least possible that the latex gloves worn by pickers could have been the source of Baby E's reaction.

As the Cal-Cel representative pointed out, the use of such gloves is an industry standard for essentially all produce. Washing fruits and vegetables very thoroughly before eating them should help to minimize the risk.

Strawberries, with their porous, seeded surface, are particularly hard to wash, and have many nooks and crannies where a latex protein or a grain of cornstarch could hide. I wonder if that could be why so many people on the corn avoiders forum have reported reactions to strawberries?

DH said that he scrubbed each berry individually with baking soda quite thoroughly, and then rinsed them well. It certainly seems unlikely that something on the surface of the berry could outlast that kind of treatment, but the information about gloves may be helpful to someone. People with severe latex or corn allergies should wash produce especially carefully.

I was impressed with the gentleman I spoke with at Cal-Cel. I do hope he'll update me if he finds out anything else about what is put on the strawberries in the field.

I doubt I'll give Baby E store-bought strawberries again, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy Cal-Cel berries for the rest of the family in the future.

Enjoy Life Foods listens to consumers

I e-mailed Enjoy Life Foods yesterday to ask if they were planning to remove the statement about having no reports of reactions to the xanthan gum from their website, since several of us reported reactions some time ago.

I just got an e-mail from Enjoy Life's Consumer Relations saying that they are in the process of redesigning their packaging and website. As these changes are implemented, the claims of their products being corn-free will be removed.

This is wonderful news! Our letter-writing was successful. Well-done, everyone. I'm so excited that our group effort was effective to bring about needed changes.

Kudos to Enjoy Life. I will no longer be boycotting the few products they carry that actually are corn-free.

Crayola

Since Crayola colored pencils were mentioned on the avoiding corn forum as being corn-free, I let Baby E color with some today. She had a great time.

But Baby E got welts on her neck wherever the colored pencils poked her. They seemed awfully big and red for just a pressure mark, so I called the company.

The representative I spoke with was very helpful. Here's what she told me:

The colored pencils do not contain corn, but they do contain soy.

The crayons contain cornstarch in the glue that fastens the paper wrappers. The crayons themselves do not contain corn, soy or coconut/palm oil. They are made in a paraffin base, not vegetable or beeswax. I am going to try taking off the wrappers and washing the crayons, and then letting Baby E use them.

The only product that contains coconut/palm oil is the oil pastels.

I did not check on the paints--if anyone does find out about them, please let me know.

Corn-Derived Calcium Citrate in Florida's Natural Orange Juice

I bought some Florida's Natural grapefruit juice with calcium last night.

The FN OJ with calcium was on the corn-free list, and Baby E has always done well with the FN unenriched orange juice. I had talked with the company last year and found that there were no corn derivatives in the processing or packaging of the juice, so it seemed pretty safe. I drank some and went to bed.

I woke up itchy and with mild intestinal symptoms. When Baby E nursed in the morning, she got a spotty rash on her face.

I noticed that the juice carton said it contained tricalcium citrate. That sent off warning bells for me. I'd just been reading that calcium citrate is made with citric acid. And we know that most citric acid nowadays is corn-derived.

So I called Florida's Natural. At first I got the "citric acid and calcium citrate is from fruit" line. Then she looked it up and said that her computer said the citric acid in the calcium was a byproduct of citric acid production. It was made by a fermentation process from natural ingredients--no dairy, no gluten, no soy. So she was sure it had no corn, either.

I explained that Baby E reacts to basically anything that has ever touched corn, and explained how synthetic citric acid is made. Most citric acid is made by a fermentation process that involves growing mold on a sugar/starch--usually corn based. I explained that Baby E does definitely react to citric acid grown on corn.

It wasn't until I asked if I could leave my contact information for them to let me know if they found any other information on it that she said she would check with the research department.

A while later she called me back. She said that the citric acid COULD be grown on corn, but that the research department said it was so highly refined that it contained no corn protein and nobody could possibly react to it.

I informed her about Baby E's rash, and that E does indeed react to corn-derived citric acid, and asked her to pass the information on to the research department.

If anyone else has reacted to the calcium citrate in Florida's Natural orange juice, I encourage you to let the company know: 1-888-657-6600 or use their website's contact form.

I don't know for sure if it's the mold or the corn (or both) that causes a problem in artificially-grown citric acid for Baby E and me, but something sure does.

Corn Allergens and Protein (Reader Question)

Here's a question from a reader:

Hi. I read some of what you wrote on the corn avoider blog. Thanks for what you've written. I was just diagnosed with a corn allergy and am trying to figure out what that means for me. I have a question for you or any of your other corn avoiding writing buddies.

So, my limited understanding of allergies is that they are a reaction to protein. Many of the corn avoidance sites mention avoiding corn derivatives. Do things like dextrose or corn starch or corn syrup have corn proteins in them? It doesn't seem like they would, especially the medical grade IV stuff.

Are there just trace amounts which are harmful to people who are severely allergic? Or are people maybe allergic to molds that form on the corn, and the mold proteins aren't eliminated during the processing into syrup or starch etc?

Please let me know what you think and if you've found any research that might shed some light on this question.

Thank you so much.

Anika

Hi, Anika. Thank you for writing. I'm sorry to hear about your corn allergy.

Unfortunately there is no hard-and-fast rule about what substances will be allergenic for which people. It really depends on your level of tolerance whether you will react to something or not.

My daughter is so sensitive that she reacts even to things that supposedly contain no protein at all.

Dextrose and corn syrup are made by taking corn starch and separating the protein from the sugar. The sugar portion is corn syrup, or when more highly refined it is dextrose or glucose. Theoretically, chemically pure dextrose should contain no protein. But the dextrose used in food products generally is not chemically pure and can contain some corn proteins.

Derivatives that are highly refined, like microcrystalline cellulose made from corncobs, corn alcohol, glycerine, glucose, and xanthan gum or citric acid grown on corn supposedly have no protein. But some people who are highly sensitive to corn do react to them anyway. There are documented cases of allergic reactions to dextrose IV solution, for example.

Unfortunately, the only really accurate way to figure out your own level of tolerance is to remove all corn derivatives from your diet for a few weeks and then start adding some of the less-allergenic derivatives. A reaction may happen immediately or it may take several days of eating the food regularly for a reaction to build up.

Some people find that they can tolerate tiny, very occasional amounts of corn derivatives, but that they have problems if they eat them too much in quantity or frequency. Others can tolerate certain derivatives like corn-derived citric acid, but will react to things like corn syrup and corn starch.

Science really doesn't completely understand allergies. It's debatable whether proteins are the only allergenic substances in foods, although most allergic reactions do seem to be caused by proteins. However, even products like refined oils (and certainly cold-pressed or expeller-pressed oils, which are less highly refined) can contain trace amounts of proteins.

According to some research done by the owner of Yummy Earth products, current tests for corn protein can only detect levels around 50 ppm (parts per million), while tests for peanut, for example, can detect amounts down to 1ppm. So even a test negative for corn protein doesn't mean that there is not enough protein in the product to cause problems for someone who is severely sensitive.

A good example is Red Star SAF yeast. Their yeast, like nearly all commercial yeast, is grown on corn syrup. They certify that there is no corn protein or corn DNA in their yeast, yet a number of people allergic to corn have had adverse reactions traced to the yeast.

Molds do grow very easily on corn (and also many of the corn derivatives are grown using molds), and most corn products are processed using sulfites, so people who are highly allergic to either one of those will probably have issues with most corn products. If this is an issue, sometimes people will be able to tolerate very fresh, well-washed corn straight from the field while having issues with other corn products. Also, fresh corn contains less of some allergenic substances than dried corn does, supposedly.

I'm working on compiling some information looking at various studies and research about corn allergy, and will post it here on the no-corn blog when I finish it. Meanwhile, I can recommend the best resources I know of for learning about corn allergy--the corn avoiders delphi forum, the corn-free list, and the list of corn derivatives on Connors' site. All those are linked in the sidebar of the News for Corn Avoiders blog. You'll also find links to several recipe blogs and other resources here.

Thank you again for writing. I hope some of this is helpful. Maybe some of the others will have something to add, also.

Best wishes in figuring out your own level of tolerance.