Snapea Manufacturing Feedback... Info to help you decide if this is a possibility for your allergy~free home

A few months ago, I wrote a post,  Snapea Crisps - What a delicious snack from Calbee America, one of my family's all time favorite snacks.  


Their labeling has changed over the past few months with the addition of the 'made in a facility that also manufactures....'.  I had some questions regarding their manufacturing processes and the concern of possible cross contamination of allergens.  Below is taken from my email to the company:

• "I am hoping to get more information from your company as to what cleaning processes you have in place or protocol you may follow to try to prevent cross-contamination of products.  Many families will not even consider buying this product as soon as they see the statement 'made in a facility that also manufactures.....'.  As a family who manages dairy allergies, we have never had a problem with this product.  Is this allergen statement fairly new?"

A representative from their company had gotten back to me in a timely matter.  However, it is I, who let time get away from me in sharing the feedback I received.  For those of you deciding whether this is a product you want to consider, hopefully, the following feedback will help you in making your decision. 

Hello Daniella,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding our Snapea Crisps allergen control. 

We receive many inquiries and are delighted to report that Original Flavor Snapea Crisps do not contain any ingredient or ingredient components made from wheat, rye, barley or milk products.

As you may be aware, we also manufacture a similar product called Snapea Crisps Caesar,  You should be aware that this product does contain dairy components.  In addition, we also have other wheat-based snacks that are made on the same manufacturing plant.  As part of our Allergen Control Program (this include employee training, employee sanitation/cleaning training, separate storage space for allergen ingredients), we only schedule manufacturing of our Snapea Originals after a full clean-up of our manufacturing line to help control allergens that might contaminate the Original Flavor Snapea Crisps. 

Our package must state allergen warnings according to FDA packaging label guidelines, even if it may be a minimal exposure.  We understand your clients’ concern but unfortunately we can’t guarantee 100% allergen free manufacturing environment.

Thank you for contacting us and hope this information will help you and your clients.

If you have any other questions, please contact me anytime.

Sincerely,

Fumie Mihaly

Calbee America, Inc.

I then wrote back asking for some further clarification:

• "Thanks for getting back to me.  "You stated that "wheat-based snacks that are made on the same manufacturing plant"..  Could you add a little more clarification?  Do you mean that the products are made in the same manufacturing plant OR that the products are processes on the same equipment in the same plant?  There is a big difference between these two statements."

Here is their follow-up response:

Hi,

Our Wheat-based snack is called Shrimp Flavored Chips:  http://www.calbeeamerica.com/calbee-snacks-shrimp-chips.html

We do manufacture our Shrimp Flavored Chips in the same manufacturing plant but not on the same line.  We have designated line only for Snapea Crisps and only for Shrimp Flavored Chips since their processing method is completely different and to minimize contamination. 

We follow industry standard cleaning process (we use both dry and wet cleaning method, each machines and lines has specific cleaning procedure including designated cleaning tools for each line)  to minimize contamination and annual 3rd party audit is conducted to ensure our cleaning up procedure is correct and up to date with any regulation changes. 

We do everything we can to minimize allergen contamination but can’t control air contamination as long as they are made in the same plant.

Thanks,

Fumie Mihaly
 Calbee America, Inc.
 2600 Maxwell Way
 Fairfield, CA  94534
 Phone:(707) 427-2500 EXT.103
 Fax:(707) 427-2900

We have eaten this product for years and manage dairy, egg, nut and fish allergies, along with a few others.  To date, we have never had any allergy concerns.  I know deciding to use this product will be a personal decision and I hope this feedback helps you out.