What are the “Top 9”?
Millions of Americans have food allergies and may experience adverse reactions to products that have food allergens. Most reactions cause mild symptoms, but some are severe and may even be life-threatening.
Although new treatments are being developed, there is no cure for food allergies. Medical diagnosis to find out which foods cause an individual to have an allergic reaction and strictly avoiding those foods are important ways to prevent serious adverse health effects.
While many different foods can cause allergic reactions, the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 (FALCPA) identifies eight foods as major food allergens: milk, eggs, fish, Crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and soybeans.
On April 23, 2021, the Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education, and Research (FASTER) Act was signed into law, declaring sesame as the 9th major food allergen recognized by the United States. The change was effective on January 1, 2023. Even though the requirement that sesame be listed on the label as an allergen is in effect as of January 1, 2023, you still may find food products for sale that don’t list sesame as an allergen on the label. Read more about the transition phase at Allergic to Sesame? Food Labels Now Must List Sesame as an allergen.
https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/food-allergies-what-you-need-know
- Milk
- Eggs
- Fish (e.g., bass, flounder, cod)
- Crustacean shellfish (e.g., crab, lobster, shrimp)
- Tree nuts (e.g., almonds, walnuts, pecans)
- Peanuts
- Wheat
- Soybeans
- Sesame
We take food allergies very seriously. We have to; read How It All Started for the full story. Below is some information about what allergens you can expect most of our recipes to avoid, as well as which typical dietary categories they might happen to fall under. No matter what, please use caution and double-check all of the ingredients if you have any allergies. I’m sure you always do anyway, but since we want to cover a variety of different foods here, we can’t flat-out guarantee that every recipe is appropriate for every diet.
Because our son is allergic to milk, eggs, peanuts, and wheat, many of our recipes will be “Top 9 Free”. Nearly all of them will also be “Gluten Free” because of the wheat & barley allergies, even though technically that’s different from a gluten intolerance. There will also be some crossover with “Vegan” because of the milk & egg allergies, but he has no aversion to meat (or honey), and given the circumstances we try to let him eat as much of what he can eat as he wants.
Nobody in our family is allergic to fish or shellfish, so we make no effort to avoid those, although practically speaking, most of our recipes won’t involve those anyway.
We also aren’t dealing with any soy or coconut* allergies. We do have to avoid cashews, but not almonds, and we have recently been cleared to use walnuts. These don’t factor into most of our recipes, but we do use coconut occasionally. Coconut milk is also our go-to milk substitute for any cornmeal-based baked goods — it’s a good flavor combo — but unless otherwise noted, any milk substitute will work for those. And fortunately, there are a lot of good options these days, so there’s a good chance you can pick one that works for you.
That’s all for the Top 9. We also are not dealing with any corn or rice allergies (except possibly for “wild” rice, which is technically pretty different from just “rice”). Those aren’t common enough to make the Top 9, but we felt it was worth mentioning. Many Cuban dishes are meant to be served with rice, and any recipes involving a flour substitute will likely also include rice flour.
Anyway, that was a mouthful, but in summary: when we call a recipe “allergy-friendly”, we are generally referring to the Top 9. If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that people can be allergic to basically anything, so there’s never an easy way to guarantee that a food will not trigger an allergy. Fortunately, there are more options available than ever before.
* There is still some debate on whether coconuts really belong in the “tree nuts” category, since allergies to coconuts are much less common than the others.
