Allergy Friendly Halloween Treats

It's that time of year again.  The time when the aisles are stocked with every type of candy imaginable, most of which aren't safe for our peanut allergic children.  I did find a couple of non-candy options this year that I wanted to share.

While shopping at Target, I came upon 3 products that are good trick-or-treat options for peanut and tree nut allergies.  The first product is Angie's Kettle Corn.  It was priced at $6.99 for a bag of 24 snack packs. Here is the allergen statement from their website:

Angie's Kettle Corn is certified gluten-free by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization and is produced in an nut-free environment. Ingredients used in the production of all our kettle corn products are free all of the regulated food allergens. We do not allow nuts of any kind in our production facility.

A plus for me is that they also have a non-GMO statement although I'm a little confused about their corn oil and will be contacting them for clarification.

Another find is Pirate's Booty.  It's gluten-free, and according to the website, "Pirate Brands’ products are made in a nut-free facility, therefore are peanut and tree-nut free."  The Pirate Brands' products are natural, but are not GMO free.  Our family has switched to the Trader Joe's brand for this reason, but for the purpose of Halloween, these small packs are perfect.  I believe that this box of 20 packs was also $6.99.

I selected the Utz Halloween Pretzels to give out at our house.  Printed right on the bag are the words "manufactured in a peanut and tree-nut free facility."  That makes me happy.  That and the fact that there are minimal ingredients, and it was just $3.99 a bag for 35 individual bags of bat and pumpkin shaped pretzels.  Here's a link to Utz's nut allergy information.

They have a very lengthy statement about using GMO ingredients and have several products that are GMO-free.  Unfortunately, the pretzels were not on that list. As I was searching their website for information for this post, I read this statement, "A vast amount of food biotechnology information has been carefully evaluated over the last ten years and found to pose very little risk to society.  The consumer issues involved here are ideological and emotional, and not scientific."  I must admit, I took offense to that statement.  Might just put me up on my soapbox and prevent me from willingly purchasing their products again.

With kids collecting so much candy on Halloween night, I like to provide an alternative.  I'll also purchase Halloween-themed pencils, erasers or other treats and hand those out as well.  There are a ton of kids in our new neighborhood.  I have a feeling I need to be well-stocked.