Allergy Scoop on Passover

Guest post from Tamar Warga

The Jewish holiday of Passover is around the corner and depending on your food allergy this may be a challenge or a reprieve. Folks with egg and nut allergies will need to be extra vigilant. During Passover, regular wheat flour and yeast are not used. As substitutes, Passover recipes frequently call for ground nuts and eggs. Tree nuts and eggs are in almost all traditional Passover desserts. While tree nuts abound, peanuts are not consumed by many Jews on Passover. This is a great time for people who are soy and corn allergic as well since many Jews don't eat soy or corn during this time. Gluten free products are plentiful due to a custom called non-gebrokts. Avoid products that list matzah, cake meal, or farfel since these are all wheat-based. On the other hand, If you see, non-gebrokts on a Passover product it is synonymous with gluten free. To recap: lots of peanut, soy, gluten, and corn free products in the Passover section of your supermarket but be extra careful about egg and tree nut ingredients. Look for some of these Passover products in the fridge and freezer sections as well.  As always, read labels and carry your epipens. Best Wishes for a Safe and Joyous Passover.  

Thank you to Tamar for this guest post!Tamar Warga, MS-CCC, SLP is a licensed and certified Speech Language Pathologist and a certifiably crazy mother of 10 (4 with food allergies). She is also the author of A Taste of Freedom Passover Food Allergy Cookbook. Tamar blogs at Kosherfoodallergies.blogspot.com, ”Where kosher Jews get allergy news.”