SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #203

[L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt]

  So to get this back to a sca-cooks topic:
  What degree of seperation is reasonable for preparing foods for which
  people are allergic:
      1. rinse out the container
      2. wash the container with detergent
      3. wash the container with bleach
      4. Use totally seperate containers (as in kosher sp?)
      5. not even in the same kitchen

It can vary.  Last night (over dinner I repeated some of the stories here
about allergies) someone offered an interesting situation.  It seems that a
friend of his ate a salad dressing that had been made in the a container that
had previously held pesto.  Even though the container had been washed and
dried completely, the tiny amount of allergen was enough to trigger an
allergy attack of some significant severity.

Nut allergies are particularly prone to that sort of extreme sensitivity.

There was an article in the local paper some months ago, about how a little
boy in a nearby town had to have the entire school agree to not bring peanut
butter or peanut based products into the building, because even the airborn
contaminants could kill him.

It is my (reluctant and sad) belief that people with THIS level of
sensitivity are unwillingly trapped, and I'm not sure that the SCA can do
much to help them.  Even if I *was* prepared to assist such a person, I
cannot be sure that the pots and pans that I will borrow or rent were
properly cared for, or that one of my volunteer cooks didn't bring a
chocolate bar with nuts in it, or something.

I just don't think we can do enough for such people.  At least, I don't see
how.

	Tibor
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