Company's Corn-Free Claims - Why you can't trust it.

I hear often, especially in regards to our Corn-Free List, that the company says it's corn-free so it's corn-free.

Corn-free means a lot of different things to different people. If you ask an every day normal by-stander if their hamburger is corn-free, they'll tell you yes. They're looking for corn kernels, and since there are none it is corn-free.  A few might say that they don't know thinking there may be corn syrup or corn starch in the bun or condiments.

This is not sufficiently corn-free for the corn allergic.

A letter posted on a Delphi-Member's site from the University of Nebraska - The Food Allergy Research & Resource Program, which is often asked to test foods for proteins so companies can make "-free" claims, had this to say about corn-free claims in the USA:

"...in the U.S., there is no regulatory definition for terms such as corn-free on product labels.  Thus, companies can establish their own definitions and there can be considerable variability.  Obviously that is not a desirable situation as such terms can sometimes be quite misleading."

This is very truly the case with corn-free labels on packaging as it's been tested by corn allergic human subjects, sometimes successfully and sometimes disastrously.  It's hit and miss, which is why we require human-testing for any product that we suspect to be corny or that would be high risk.  As much as we'd love to, we cannot just take a company's word for corn-free status.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't contact companies though. As companies can confirm for you that something definitely is corn, which can save you from trying it out. It simply means that even though a company has said "Yes this is corn-free" you should still use caution until you've tested it yourself.

As I've posted once before, we don't believe that companies are using false corn-free claims in order to do harm, but merely that they lack understanding of what constitutes corn-free and/or that their suppliers are not well informed.

University of Nebraska - The Food Allergy Research & Resource Program "does not have an analytical method to test for corn so we would certainly not have performed any testing for corn." So if you see FARRP mentioned as the source for their corn-free claim, please notify the FARRP organization at UNL (here).

Please also keep in mind that tests for "-free" claims do allow a certain amount of proteins to be present (parts per million - ppm) so if it's made from corn, and claimed that the corn is processed out of it, there still could be a protein left (your allergy may not even be protein based, but that's another story).

Grading the severity of your allergy: Sensitivity vs Reaction Level

When it comes to allergic reactions there are essentially two measurements to grade your reactions.

On one side there is reactivity. The severity of a reaction can be as simple as making you miserable, or as life threatening to land you in the ER.

On the other side, there is sensitivity. One whiff of your allergen from 6 miles away might set you off, or you might just simply be able to pick off the offending food from your plate.

These two measurements of allergenicity (is that a word? probably not).. These two measurements of your allergy do not have a single thing to do with one another.

You can go into anaphylactic shock with every reaction, but still only react with direct contact.  Another person can simply not feel well with each reaction, and have that reaction if someone even walks in the room with the offending item.

This is where people get confused, and this confusion can sometimes cause people to proclaim things to be totally safe when they're not, or misrepresent themselves. Often this is not done with evil intentions, but with well meaning people trying to share their experiences and help others out.

Whether you tested a 1 or a 4 for your allergen, whether or not it lands you in the ER, does not make you sensitive. An allergy's sensitivity is about just how little contact or exposure is required to make you react at all in any sense.

In sensitivity, there are also two main gauges of sensitivity. Internal and External.

Internal sensitivity is when the allergen is ingested. This includes eye contact and breathing it in, as these both allow the allergen to get "inside" the body with possible absorption by the mucus membranes.

External sensitivity is direct skin contact. Keep in mind, even those without much external sensitivity may find themselves reacting to contact if their skin is broken, or if the corny substance is wet, or if they're in the shower, as wet or broken skin allows the body to more readily absorb the allergen through the skin weakening it's protective barrier.

Someone who is internally sensitive is not always necessarily externally contact sensitive. Those who are externally sensitive may not always be internally as sensitive.

This allows for a lot of confusion when grading products for reliability of corn-free status.

Even at my most sensitive, I could still pick up a corn chip with my fingers or touch a corn cob (I didn't because of my fear of accidentally getting residue of it in my mouth.) without much of a reaction or without a reaction at all.  Others would break out into a full body rash on contact with a corn chip, but be able to eat some contaminated products that would leave me sick as a dog for days.

So just to clarify.. The severity of your reaction while horrid does not make your reactions more valid for testing the presence of an allergen, it's your sensitivity (how much it takes to set you off) that is a much better test of the presence of an allergen.

So when you're out there on boards and forums, do a lot of reading and pay attention to what products people are using. Find the person who best fits your own sensitivity level, and join forces.

The best way to get through this allergy is with someone else who also can help you weed out problem products and make safe recommendations.

Don't trust anyone just because they sound right, or are saying what you want to hear.  Sometimes the thing that sounds the most unbelievable with this allergy, is the one you should rely on. 

In truth, question everything.


(If you're part of our groups, please also see terminology descriptions: http://no-corn.blogspot.com/2018/03/defining-your-sensitivity-level-for-our.html)