When free from isn't

There's been lots in the news over the weekend about supermarket's own brand and Genius gluten free products being recalled as they may actually contain gluten. It's been bothering me all weekend but I wasn't going to blog about it as I don't feel like I know a lot about it. But then that's exactly why it terrifies me so much.

As far as I'm aware Monkey doesn't have a problem with gluten. I'm not even entirely sure what gluten is if I'm honest. She does have a problem with wheat though and a lot of gluten free products are also marketed as being suitable for someone with a wheat allergy.

Looking after a baby with allergies is scary. You become an expert at reading labels, know about 752 ways that an allergen can appear in an ingredients list and still you're scared that somehow they'll end up eating something they shouldn't.

Until this weekend though, I never felt that I'd have been happily handing Monkey food she was allergic too. I'm careful about always checking labels, even on safe foods as recipes can change. The label checking is only any good though if the labels are accurate. I've always just trusted them, now I'm not sure that I can.

A list of recalled products can be found on the Food Standards Agency website. Luckily Monkey hasn't had any of them, but that's all it is - good luck. Finding food that's safe for Monkey isn't easy, I need to be able to trust free from labelling. Her only safe bread still appears to be safe but seeing how fast the announcements were coming yesterday I'm not convinced we've seen the end of it yet. I'm expecting to see more products being recalled. I'm hoping there's going to be a proper investigation into how this has happened but until then, I think we'll be sticking to home made.