The recent recall of my kids’ favorite mini bagels – luckily only in certain areas of the country – got me thinking about bread and commercial manufacturing practices.

I decided to take action, so that led to emails and a phone call to our local bread manufacturing plant (Bimbo) for information on allergy safety and manufacturing practices.

Bread is more than sustenance – in our culture it has lots of meanings. “Give us this day our daily bread,” after all, is one of our most basic prayers. “Best thing since sliced bread,” is one of our most overused cliches.

My oldest son is allergic to sesame, which is often used in Italian breads. After hearing about tree nut contamination of bagels and mini bagels for that manufacturer, Bimbo Bakeries, I gave them a call to find out how they handle allergens. Bimbo manufacturers breads under the brand names Arnold’s, Weight Watchers, Sara Lee,  Stroehman’s, Freihofer’s, Thomas and more.

The good news is, for the labeled Top 8 allergens (including milk, peanut, tree nut, egg) they wash the production lines in between runs. This is known in the business as a safe manufacturing practice.

Here’s the allergy statement on one of their products’ web site:

What is your guidance on allergenic ingredients for highly sensitive consumers?

We adhere to Good Manufacturing Practices as established by the FDA. We take abundant precaution to prevent cross-contact of allergenic ingredients between batches, and our bakeries are inspected to ensure that they meet or exceed all regulatory and baking industry standards. We understand that highly sensitive consumers need to know when there is even the remote possibility of inadvertent cross-contact of allergenic ingredients during processing. To that end, we disclose that the following allergenic ingredients are used in some of our manufacturing facilities and that inadvertent cross-contact is remotely possible: milk, eggs, soy, almonds, walnuts, peanuts, coconuts and hazelnuts (filberts). Wheat is used in all of our facilities and all of our products as an ingredient. Please refer to ingredient labels on our products for full disclosure of the ingredients used in that product.

I read these statements and followed up with an email and a phone call to one of their representatives.

When asked specifically about sesame, I was told they do not clean after breads with sesame and/or they do not claim any type of allergen cross contact prevention there. This is because sesame is not in the top 8. (Please sign the petition to have it added!)

Net result: Continued use of their breads is a risk I have to be willing to take on.

I took 10 minutes in the grocery store yesterday to look at bread labels to see how much product Bimbo actually makes that are on shelves. The answer was close to 90% of the bread in our supermarket is made by them. They carry different “brand names” but the manufacturer is Bimbo.

The exceptions appear to be Pepperidge Farm  and Nature’s Own. Many of these brands use eggs and/or milk in their ingredients, so as always reading labels is key. I have not yet cross examined these other manufacturers yet, but we needed bread!

We’re trying a loaf of one of these this week, and my oldest was nervous, he told the school nurse, “because the crust looked different.” Someday I will write a blog post about how all this food fear affects kids.

I called the allergist and they recommended going to a local organic market in another town for locally sourced bread without allergy contact. This is now on the To Do list. I will need to cross examine the unfortunate soul in the bakery department there too.

In the meantime, I am debating getting a bread maker on sale on Woot.com. I’d signed myself & the oldest up for a kid food allergy cooking class that was cancelled due to “lack of interest” so maybe I’ll apply that money here.

And then I can make bread with my kids, hopefully turning around the risk issue into something empowering?