"Cheat" Eats: Try with caution -- sensitive mom/babies or newly diagnosed babies may not tolerate

  • International Delight French Vanilla Creamer
  • Pepperidge Farm Oatmeal Raisin cookies (although it does have caramel coloring, so try with caution!)
  • Stacy's Cinnamon Sugar pita chips (at Whole Foods)

Monday, May 5, 2008

Beware of Firming/Binding agents

So we were cooking dinner last night, and in an effort to diversify our milk protein intolerant mom's menu, we went on a pantry hunt.
Here's what we found: Calcium chloride, which is listed as "firming agent" -- in other words, a possible milk product -- in canned white beans is not listed as such on other cans of vegetables, like canned tomatoes.
It's also hard to find this ingredient on any of the prepared lists provided by other Web sites or doctors. But according to a study done by Dave Barbano (dmb37@cornell.edu), Professor of Food Science at Cornell University and Director of the Northeast Dairy Foods Research Center on Milk Protein Products - What Are They and What Role Do They Play in Lactose Reduced (Low “Carb”) Foods? it absolutely is a source of milk protein.

It's a pretty lengthy page, so I'll cut to the chase and cut and paste the good stuff below:

What are some other milk protein products?

Co-precipitates: These are prepared by adding calcium chloride or dilute acid to skim milk followed by a
heating step to cause a curd formation that captures both the caseins and whey proteins.
The products are approximately 90% protein.


So there you have it. I think I'll be going back and editing some of my recipes right now, because some of them call for white beans. If anyone knows of any canned products that are good about keeping this ingredient out of their products, please feel free to share!

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