I was again perusing my cookie ingredients deciding what to bake this year when my husband made a startling discovery.

Walnuts may contain nuts. Imagine that. Of course this discovery started us reading the labels of all the ingredients. It seems that all of them can be fatal or at least make a person very sick.

At least the sweet cream butter had one redeeming quality that they felt the need to advertise in large letters on the carton: Gluten-Free

I wonder if that includes the carton and the glue used to hold the carton together? Is it in fact possible to purchase real dairy butter that is not gluten-free? I imagine gluten must be very bad for someone, somewhere for them to feel the need to proclaim their product gluten-free.

Unfortunately the butter is not without hazard. The box also proclaims, “Allergy Warning: Contains Milk.” I don’t know about you, but if I were allergic to milk I’d probably steer clear of dairy butter and buy margarine instead. Maybe even butter-flavored Crisco.

Examining the butter led me to examine the cream cheese. Apparently cream cheese is not gluten-free because the carton did not say it was but it did warn that it contains milk.

I thought I better examine the all-purpose flour since it goes into everything I bake. Imagine my horror to discover that flour contains wheat. Did you know that? It looks like a lot of people must not know or they wouldn’t need to put a warning on the sack.

This brings us back to the walnuts. I have two bags, two different brands.

The first bag is Southern Grove Shelled Walnuts. Printed on the bag is, “Allergy Information: May contain peanuts and/or other tree nuts.” I don’t know about you, but when I buy a bag of walnuts I fully expect it to contain nuts. The use of the qualifier, may, is disturbing to me. Does this mean that I may have artificial walnuts?

The second bag is Diamond Shelled Walnuts. Printed on the bag is, “This product is processed on equipment that also processes other tree nuts or peanuts. May contain tree nuts, or peanuts.” There is that word, may, again.

Do people who are allergic to nuts really go out and buy bags of walnuts? If they do, I have good news for them. Apparently pecans do not contain nuts. There was no warning to be found anywhere on my bag of pecan halves.

The last thing I checked was my bag of chocolate chips. “Made on equipment that also processes peanuts or nuts.” I’ve got to admit this was a bit of a surprise. I don’t think someone with a nut allergy would reasonably expect to find them in a bag of chocolate chips. What part of the processing for nuts and chocolate chips is similar enough to account for shared equipment? Inquiring minds want to know.

If you are allergic to anything, including cats or dogs, I do not recommend that you eat anything I bake this season. I guess I’ll have to eat it all myself.

originally published on Gather on 12-21-07