[Sca-cooks] Hidden sources of food allergens

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Aug 20, 2006, at 12:01 AM, grizly wrote:

> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>>> French fries.  First, the oil in which they're fried may be
> contaminated.  Second, commercial fries are usually dredged in  
> flour to
> help them crisp.  Fresh cut fries fried in oil that hasn't been  
> used for
> breaded products would be safe, but they're very rare. < < < < < < <
>
>
> Actually, flour is inadequate as a crisping agent.  Varuous  
> starches are the
> crisping . . . maybe a modified food starch, but flour ust won't  
> stay crisp
> long enough.  There is some chemistry in there, I am sure  
> involviong the
> sugars.
>
> niccolo difrancesco

I was going to mention this last night, but got side-tracked. My  
experience has been that many of the instances in which flour has  
been specifically mentioned as a hidden allergen has been in  
reference to restaurant foods, where A) restaurants rarely use actual  
flour for that purpose, although some related product or derivative  
_is_ possible, and B) most often flour is used by home cooks for  
these purposes, where presumably you can get an honest, simple and  
straightforward answer to questions you may have.

Of course, that doesn't really render the basic complaint, that some  
people can have an attack from eating French fries if they're coated  
or fried in a contaminated oil, null and void...

Adamantius