People often ask if a Costco membership is worth it when a lot of what you’ll find in any store, let alone a membership based one, isn’t an option when you have food allergic individuals at home.  Produce and basics aside, I wanted to write about a few finds this past week at our Henderson Costco.  Be advised that these selections are specific to our Southwest region of the country and that no one paid me to write any of this though Happy Family and Luke’s were FABlogCon sponsors last year. This post has been on my mind since I first wrote about Kirkland’s Ricemilk (here and here) but thank you to Sharon Wong from Nut Free Wok for encouraging me to get it done!  The photos are just from my phone so they are more illustrative and informative than pinterest-worthy.  As always, call companies to verify a food’s appropriateness for you.  I uploaded these files at full resolution so you can click on the images and peek at ingredient labels if you are interested in seeking a product out.

When E outgrew her corn allergy but had not yet outgrown her wheat allergy, these were a great option.  I usually am not a fan of corn tortillas but you cook these up fresh and they are wonderful in recipes like enchiladas.  60 for $6.39, I’m not sure if they freeze well or not. Read more about the ingredients here and about their stock status here for Kirkland Organic Ricemilk.  We use it almost exclusively even though milk is now technically a safe option for us.  Unlike many Ricemilks, it is not in a shared facility with nuts per my last communication with Costco corporate.  $13.99 for 12 containers with 4 cups in each. We can’t have oats, peanuts, tree nuts, or sesame so this Granola isn’t an option but I include it here for my gluten free and vegan friends that may not be aware Costco is carrying products by Udi’s.  My favorite nut free and oat free granola is by Enjoy Life but I don’t know if they’ll break into Costco with anything other than Plentils for the time being.  

Luke’s crackers are pretty tasty and though my favorite of their products would have to be their chips (and even some of those have sesame), I love that an allergy aware company is featured at Costco.  hamilton beach blender 70580This particular box consists of two large backs of the crackers (not snack packs like I assumed when I first purchased them) and the flavor is very neutral.  hamilton beach food processor 70740 reviews I am sharing Nutiva’s coconut oil in a cautionary way since they now carry a shared with peanut oil in the facility warning.  vitamix 5200 super 64oz variable speed blenderWe haven’t bought it since but it may still be a safe option for some!  where to buy oster beehive osterizer classic blender 4093

(Updated 12/1/14 – I found an announcement that some varieties now are made in a different facility.  magic bullet mbr-1701 handheld blenderView the article on Nutiva’s site to learn more.)cuisinart blender model sbc 1000 I purchased this for my sister in law, who is doesn’t eat wheat or gluten products, so I could make an easy treat considering we don’t stock gluten free flours the way we used to at home when E was allergic to wheat.  breville blender ikon hemisphere reviewsShe really enjoyed baking with these mixes and liked the results.  Great price, but again, I didn’t buy these necessarily for my daughter so I don’t know what other factors may come into play ingredient-wise.  

Just nice to see gluten free options for people!   When I was a kid we didn’t eat anything out of a pouch. . .well, I guess except for drinking Capri-Sun “juice.”  My kids love all things pouch based it seems and Costco is in tune with that.   These applesauce pouches are E and R’s favorite – my daughter even wrote the company a letter (with her Auntie’s help) to thank them for being nut free.  You may think, of course applesauce is nut free, but it is nice to see Go Go Squeez taking pride in that.   Happy Family also has a line of fruit sauce pouches but crazily these were stacked right next to the powdered peanut butter in the store (just an observation, I know everything is sealed) and they have this little note on them saying your purchase supports “Operation Peanut Butter.”  I looked into it and it is actually a program to help with starvation around the world in children with peanut butter enriched with other ingredients.  Every purchase supports this project.  

You can watch a video clip from Happy Family about Operation Peanut Butter here.  I personally would like to know more about the way they are approaching this program but their hearts are in the right place and it is not an implication regarding the manufacture of these pouches themselves.  I just was surprised by the new reference on the label and looked into it a bit. We stumbled upon this bread a while back and bought some to try when my sister in law visited.  No nuts, gluten, dairy or soy!  It is also delicious toasted or untoasted so do check it out.  $7.99 for two sizable loaves of yummy gluten free bread is a great deal too. $10.59 for 48 fruit leathers that sell at supermarket checkouts for 50 cents apiece is a substantial deal (22 cents apiece, in fact).  All of these fruit leathers are natural and make for a good purse/diaper bag emergency snack. 40 fruit snacks from one of our favorite companies, Yummy Earth!  These are even gelatin free.  I like to buy things like this for my daughter’s class so they have safe treats on hand in case a student forgets a snack at home.

100 individual bags of Jelly Belly jelly beans for $9.79 – I bought these for my daughter’s school Trunk or Treat so they could pass out peanut free options.  Please confirm that these are safe for other allergies of course. These are wheat based crackers but another option for in class snacks at $11.89.  They do have soy and milk alerts in addition to wheat, I am glad for the absence of oats on these. We buy the non-organic Kirkland corn chips for a very good reason – the Organic variety has a nut warning.  Click here to see the front and back of the Organic variety.  We once grabbed the wrong one by accident so I thought I’d mention it.   $4.79 for a bag of potato chips bigger than your head can’t be beat.  I like to eat these with salsa which I know makes me weird but I don’t mind. I haven’t purchased this shampoo but the label looks promising.  Have any of you tried it?  $14.99 is spendy for me but it might be a good option given the ingredient list.

I have yet to fill an epinephrine prescription at Costco (see also: my posts about EpiPen and Auvi-Q two packs and expiration dates) but we do get Zyrtec, Claritin, and Benadryl there for time to time. I spotted this cart at checkout – when we entered the store Costco had a display for singing Olaf dolls.  R wanted one and I said no but a lot of parents had their kids playing with them in their carts so it was funny to see how many ended up on the “re-stock” pile.  Don’t worry, some grandparent is going to buy you anyway so you can sing for the whole family at home. . .I hope this was of interest – I’d love to know what food allergy friendly finds you have at your local Costco because I’m a Costco nerd (Exhibit A). Edited 10/27/14 to add:  A reader (thank you, Mary!) communicated to me that Costco will take otherwise safe candy and mix it in with unsafe (for, say, nut allergy) candy to package for Halloween so a trick or treater wouldn’t actually know if their usual brand was safe.  

They informed me they’d tried to work with Costco on the issue but they would not budge.  I did want to share that warning as it was not something I’d thought about before.  They also brought up the elephant in the room, so to speak, about samples and cooking in the aisles for samples that involve nut products or other allergens.  There are signs stating that there are allergy warnings but we all know children don’t and can’t sometimes read those signs so parents of food allergic children need to pay special attention.  Sample distributors will ask a child to get their parent’s permission before trying food but I’ve also had them offer my child something while I was standing there and make no statement about allergies.  Of course there is also the risk of a child grabbing something in the rush of people to get a sample and the fact that the reps don’t usually have more information about a product than what is displayed on their packaging.  So my recommendation of Costco comes with caveats, however, you can certainly find a lot of good options from among the multiple aisles of mixed nuts.