FAACT's Roundtable

Ep. 246: Certified Free From Allergen Certification Program

• Season 5 • Episode 246

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We’re joined by Betsy Craig, CEO and founder of MenuTrinfo and creator of the first Certified Free From Allergen Program. Learn how her groundbreaking work is making food shopping safer and more transparent for those with allergies.

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Caroline: Welcome to FAACT's Roundtable, a podcast dedicated to navigating life with food allergies across the lifespan. Presented in a welcoming format with interviews and open discussions,

each episode will explore a specific topic, leaving you with the facts to know or use.

Information presented via this podcast is educational and not intended to provide individual medical advice.

Please consult with your personal board certified allergist or healthcare providers for advice specific to your situation.

Caroline: Hi everyone, I'm Caroline Moassessi and I am your host for the FAACT Roundtable Podcast.

I am a food allergy parent and advocate and the founder of the Gratefulfoodie Blog. And I am FAACT's Vice President of Community Relations.

Today we're diving into the world's first Certified Free From Food Allergen Certification Program with author and menu trend faux founder, the unstoppable Betsy Craig. Shopping with food allergies can feel like navigating just a maze of confusing labels.

But Betsy and her team set out to change all of that, creating a groundbreaking program designed to bring clarity, safety and peace of mind to our community when shopping for foods and products that are free from specific allergens.

Welcome back, Betsy, to FAACT's Roundtable Podcast.

This is an extremely exciting podcast because we're talking about something that I personally believe and I think it's safe to say a lot of the community is going to grieve.

This is going to change our world immensely. And so this is a really exciting and important podcast and I'm just so happy that you are here to share every bit of it with us.

Betsy: Caroline, thank you. Thank you, FAACT,

for having me back. Oh, that rhymes. Thanks for having me on the podcast today to talk about CFF and what we're doing to change the future of food allergies for folks, how they shop.

Caroline: This is excellent. So we're gonna just jump right in.

So for listeners who haven't met you yet, Betsy, you earned that nickname Unstoppable.

So what drives your passion for improving life for people with food allergies and special diets? And maybe explain that unstoppable too.

Betsy: That's a great question. I will tell you, I do sign all my emails. Stay Unstoppable.

First off, anybody with a food allergy absolutely understands what it's like to be unstoppable. You have to unstoppable to get the answers you need before you put food in your mouth and trust that you're going to Be safe.

I mean, you got to be unstoppable.

So I relate to that.

I am a person who's had an invisible disease for a long, long time.

Much like a food allergy is an invisible disease. I mean, to look at me, you wouldn't know I was sick, but I was horribly sick with an autoimmune disease called scleroderma.

And given a short lifespan, and I have beaten all those odds,

been through a lot to stay alive. I call myself a cat. I'm supposed to be dead. Many times I made not to go down this path, but just to quickly say I made a commitment to myself by talking to a God I believe in when I was laying on a couch dying back in 2005.

And I said, if I get off this couch, I'm going to do something.

I don't know what it's going to be and I don't know who it's going to affect. And I got off the couch and I met people with food allergies and I fell in love with them.

And I was like, I have found my passion. I have found what I need to do, and that is help keep people alive with food allergies. Food is love and let's make it not hurt.

Caroline: I love that. I mean, I've known you for a long time and I just adore you. And that was just a wonderful introduction to you. So now let's talk about the Certified Free From Allergen certification program.

It's. It's a big mouthful here,

but with this program,

what need are you fulfilling? I mean, you're definitely a person who is trying to change the narrative for us.

And you saw this need. So what was this need that drove this whole moment?

Betsy: So I really saw a gap in our food system in substantiating a claim.

Anybody could put dairy free nut free on packaging, but how would we know to trust that? And with precautionary allergy labeling statements,

it really confuses things because brands use those in all different ways. There's no definitive regulation around that. So I saw this huge gaping hole of transparent information to the consumer at the aisle, on the bottle, on the bag,

when you're standing in your favorite retail trying to decide, do I buy this or this or can I buy anything on the shelf?

So I wanted to make what I call the Good Housekeeping seal of approval for food allergies like CFF. Certified Free From. Yes, it's a lot. Certified Free From allergens.

CFF is what we call it internally because it's A lot easier to say.

But CFF launched out of a college dining and in Cornell University,

making a dining hall free from peanut tree nut and gluten in and then went to package. And then during COVID we got it accredited, which I'll get into.

But we made it more than just a logo. We're popping on food.

It has, it's backed by science,

it's been vetted out through six different revisions. I mean there is so much that goes into this.

So the long and short of your question is certified free from program fills the gap and the neat. We've been doing it with gluten free for over a decade.

Why haven't we done the same for allergens? I decided to change that.

Caroline: That is the exact question I think all of us have been saying is where is that verification that yes, this has been tested, you know, properly through science,

through testing that's, you know, medically and scientifically vetted. Like how do we know? And we have been just wanting this. I'm speaking for myself and my family,

but they're very excited about this. This is a game changer completely. So now let's talk about the actual program. If you can just help us explore the mechanics of it.

And then how does the whole program work from our consumer viewpoint?

Betsy: So first we had to develop a standard and scheme and that's how the certification industry works.

Whether it's non-GMO, gluten-free, or Kosher.

The standard scheme is what you're trying to achieve and what standards you're going to use to achieve it. So we want to achieve, if we say something is free from an allergen,

what path does someone need to go through? What do they need to go through on policies and procedures?

How for the love of all things holy, are they going to order the right ingredients to make the products and make sure those ingredients aren't tainted before they even show up on their loading dock.

How are they going to receive it, how are they going to store it, how are they going to mix it,

make it and package it and then how are they going to ship it back out and keep it safe all the way to the retailer?

So we look at every single step along the way.

Betsy: So every manufacturer that makes allergen free product that we're going to certify,

we go to their physical plant, whether it's one factory or many,

we go to every single location with an accredited auditor to look under the hood of their location.

We want to make sure they tell us what they're doing and that we actually see them doing that in person at the audit time. You know, we require testing based on the risks in that location, whether it's a low, medium or high risk.

And then part of the certification is they have to send us monthly reports of that testing.

We also require quarterly reports.

Basically,

we want to make sure if certified free from is on a package,

it's backed by standards,

procedures and actually science. You know,

we benefit a whole bunch from the folks at University of Nebraska at the FAARP location,

Dr. Taylor and the people that are now running it, Melody and Joe,

they're amazing and they are the science that give us the teeth and the backbone that know we can do certified free from.

So basically, bottom line,

we do a pre audit, an in person audit, a post audit. If there's anything we need to make sure they tighten up on, we go ahead and get them to tighten up on that and we measure them to our standards.

Not all that long ago, I went through the FAARP program,

which I call Food Allergy Boot Camp. It's held every year in the fall and it taught me a ton, even though I've been doing this for more than a decade.

Amazing to think about all the different nuances of manufacturing locations,

what might or might not be in a facility, how do we check it, how do we make sure it's safe from their loading dock to your tabletop at home?

Betsy: Bottom line,

I mirrored what gluten free did on their standard and scheme expanded it out to cover allergens. I mean, I could go deep in this, honestly. But the bottom line, we do a pre audit, an in person audit, a post audit nonconformities where they don't measure up to our standards,

we make them fix that and then we give them the seal and then they have to prove to us they can keep the seal throughout the year to substantiate that claim.

Caroline: This is amazing that CFF is rooted in that type of science there.

So as a consumer, I'm going to go shopping, I'm going to see a box, I'm going to pull that off the shelf and then I'm going to know when I see that CFF that that is you.

But how do I as a consumer confirm that that really is you? So do you have a website or resources so I can go in and say, okay, that's Betsy Craig and Menu Trinfo and that's not some knockoff trying to trick me?

Betsy: Great question. First off, we're going through trademarking of our CFF logo, so it will be the same on Every single product and it simply states CFF certified free from allergens.

And then on back of package by ingredient, it will tell you which allergens it's free from.

So just like you're reading an ingredient statement in two seconds, you can see the allergens it is certified free from.

You can jump to cfffoods.org and under the consumer tab,

there's something that mentions CFF Approved SKUs or Approved Products.

There. You will find description of the products on one of those pages and the other is the SKUs. Now, a SKU is the barcode on the back of every product you and I buy.

And that is a unique number for the brand,

the flavor, the size, packaging. You can even compare up those numbers if you want.

But just to use an example, right now, if you go to see cfffoods.org and you click the tab that states CFF Approved Products and it has the word SKUS in parentheses and tap the Better Goods tab, which some of you may know is a Walmart private label brand.

And what's wonderful is they're telling people, go ahead, don't just say it's peanut tree nut free, substantiate it. They're sending folks to us.

So we're doing this and we're real excited. But under that tab, our first brand we're working with, under the Better Goods is this protein bar that's free from peanut and tree nut.

So you can go into Walmart, look for better goods, grab the protein bar. If it's one of these three flavors, it'll have this product number, this SKU number,

and it is free from peanut and tree nutrients.

Caroline: This is incredible.

This is absolutely incredible. And listeners, I pulled up the website and it's exciting. I can see brands that I like. I'm seeing brands I never heard of,

which thrills me to no end as a parent of two adults with food allergies. Yes, my kids are considered adults now.

And something I just saw here that's amazing to me is Grimaldi's Pizza, which is a family favorite restaurant. It's a chain that's across the nation. And I'm clicking on it and I can see that the tomato sauces are all certified free from.

It is amazing. This is incredible. My kids are going to flip out after this podcast when they hear this. I mean, no joke. Since my son, I think, was five or six, Grimaldi's Pizza has been his food of choice for his birthday.

And he's 27 and he just had it. But this is so Exciting because the comfort and the confidence of buying those products. And then the people who like are around my children who want to support them and help them, coworkers and friends who want to get the right brands,

like, this is crazy. We've never had this before.

Betsy: Well, they want to do the Grimaldi's is top nine free. And where they manufacture is amazing. We were honored to put our seal on their package.

One of the things and one of the reasons you don't recognize a number of those brands is because it's been slow on the uptick. I need your audience to reach out to manufacturers and say, I care.

Care enough about me as you do. Gluten free. Like substantiate the claim on allergens. And so there's a letter to manufacturers on our site and we've got some social. We've stood up.

The more the consumer lets the manufacturers know you care,

the earlier they're going to adopt. A lot of early adopters are on that page. And, and there's some amazing ones. Milay sausage is free from all nine. You've got GF jewels.

You've got Larissa's kitchen, which is free of all nine. And gluten. I mean, it's just amazing. And we now have a member's mark product.

We have, which is of course Sam's Club. We have a Kirkland product coming soon. Which is the other big guy.

You know, it's. I'm not, I don't want to name drop, but I'm really excited. And if you go to that page, you're going to see it.

One of the big retailers just did an announcement of a back to school allergy friendly foods and they skipped getting them certified.

And I think we as a community have to say substantiate it. Don't let it just put allergy friendly. There is nothing friendly about calling something allergy friendly.

It drives me nuts when we think that's kind.

It's not kind. Substantiate the claim. You can call it friendly, but get the claim on there.

Caroline: It's confusing. I was in the grocery store the other day and I saw a new product and it said allergy friendly in the front. So I grabbed it thinking, yes, something new.

And then I flipped the box over and right there may contain tree nuts and sesame.

We can't have them.

Betsy: See, that's not allowed with. With cff.

We do not allow PAL statements about the allergens we're free from. So if you're certified free from peanut and tree nut, you are not Allowed to put a PAL statement may contain maintenance facility that also blah, blah, blah.

Because guess what? Good manufacturing practices makes it so they can test and we can be assured that something is free. We're not going to have conflicting statements on a box with our name attached to it, period.

We're just not.

Caroline: Well, that's what it sounds like. The purpose of this program is to remove all that confusion,

give confidence to the manufacturer, give confidence to the consumer,

and to give confidence to the community to make safe decisions. Because you and I both know if you're eating safe food, you have a better time. You're not worried, you're not looking, you're not thinking in the back of your head, where's my epinephrine?

Is it in reach? You are in the moment. And I just hope everyone realizes that when we have that kind of confidence, we're in the moment of whatever we're doing and our life just improves dramatically right now.

Betsy: Absolutely.

Caroline: Oh, my God. This is.

This is crazy. So for consumers, you already mentioned it. They can go to the website and I'll make sure I have the website in the show notes, and they can look for that letter and they can just send a quick email off to their favorite brands and say, hey,

I heard about this. I would love this. And why? Because you're right. How do they know what we want if we're not voicing that?

Betsy: Yeah, we call them and they say, no, customers ask for this.

Caroline: Wow.

Betsy: That's what they tell me. And it just breaks my heart because I know the customers need it, I know the consumers need it. You keep using the word confidence.

This division of my company used to be called Kitchens With Confidence because we did certified free from. At that university at Cornell, and we called that certification there, Kitchens With Confidence, because we knew we were delivering confidence for people to eat.

We're still delivering confidence, but we're backing it with ISO 17065 standards worldwide. We've been all over the world to check factories, by the way,

we have auditors literally across the world, everywhere from down in New Zealand to Paraguay to Canada, down in Mexico. I mean, everywhere over in Europe.

Because food is made internationally, we need to make sure it's safe. When it hits your table and hits.

Caroline: Your mouth,

boy, that's so precious. That's just so important.

So our time is up. This has been so incredible, so amazing. But before we say goodbye, is there anything you want people to hear from you?

Betsy: If you have a food allergy or love somebody with a food allergy, you're the reason I do what I do. Thank you.

Caroline: That's beautiful. Well, Betsy, thank you for being who you are. Thank you for being unstoppable and such a bright light in our community.

I mean, every time I see you, you're hugging people, and I know I'm in line for a hug, and I just love that. And we just all appreciate your energy and your love and your passion, and I think this is just a real big game changer.

And I'm just so proud of you. And thank you again for your time today, and thank you for the good work and looking forward to seeing you in October at FAACT's Allergy Summit.

Betsy: Can't wait. Thank you for everything, Caroline. You've always been a wonderful cheerleader for us, and I greatly, greatly appreciate you. I know the community does as well. It's an honor.

Caroline: Well, you're very welcome.

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