Clabber Girl Press Room
To combat food allergies, Clabber Girl goes peanut-free!

Clabber Girl Corporation Leads the Way With a Peanut-Free Manufacturing Facility

Ten-year-old Paige Cassidy has to eat lunch at her Noblesville, Indiana school all by herself. She has food allergies so severe that minimal contact with certain ingredients can be life threatening. Even a whiff of peanut butter can send Paige into anaphylactic shock.

For years, physicians at Riley Hospital for Children have worked with Paige and her family to keep her allergic reactions under control.

But this spirited young girl has done even more. When she was only six, she testified before Indiana lawmakers, encouraging them to adopt a law (which passed in 2000 as Paige Cassidy's Law) that would allow all levels of emergency medical technicians in Indiana (not just paramedics) to administer the medication that can save patients like Paige who go into anaphylactic shock from an allergic reaction.

Paige Cassidy, who is the 2005 Indiana Foresters Champion Across America, a Children's Miracle Network Program, was in Terre Haute on Wednesday, June 22 to help Clabber Girl Corporation and its employees announce the conversion of its manufacturing plant to a peanut-free facility.

"We're happy that Paige will be with us to put a face on Clabber Girl's efforts to combat this serious health problem," said Gary Morris, Clabber Girl president and COO. "We hope that by becoming peanut-free, Clabber Girl is demonstrating its commitment to all of our customers. The health of too many kids is at serious risk from food allergies."

Food allergies are responsible for nearly 100 deaths and 15,000 visits to emergency rooms a year, most of them children.

Morris said, "By partnering with Riley Hospital for Children we hopefully will reduce the number of kids sent to Riley because of life-threatening allergies, while at the same time raising money to make sure the hospital is there when our children need it."

Morris has a long history with Riley; he spent the summer of 1973 working as a camp counselor at Camp Riley for Youth with Physical Disabilities. He never expected that spending the summer with campers would make such an impact on his life.

"Working at Camp Riley left an impression that will remain with me," Morris said. "It was one of the best summers of my life."

"Clabber Girl and Gary Morris have championed the work being done at Riley for many years," said Kevin O' Keefe, president and CEO, Riley Children's Foundation. "We commend Gary and Clabber Girl for their leadership in taking definitive steps to make Indiana children safer and healthier."

Canadian protocol was used, since none is in place in U.S.
Starting June 1, no peanut products are allowed in the Clabber Girl facility. In the transition to become a peanut-free manufacturing facility the company had to utilize a Canadian protocol, because there are no established standards in the U.S. for peanut-free facilities. As a part of the monitoring process, ingredient suppliers are required to provide statements declaring their products to be peanut-free, visitors must sign a statement that they are not bringing any product into the facility that contains peanuts in any form, and product samples are sent to independent labs for testing.

Clabber Girl manufactures Delisheries, a line of dry cookie and other gourmet mixes widely used by schools and non-profit agencies for fundraising campaigns. Because these products are used by and for so many children, and because children are increasingly affected by food allergies, Clabber Girl has taken the lead in providing this peanut-free product.

For each tub of Delisheries sold in Indiana, Clabber Girl will donate 25 cents to Riley Hospital. In addition, Clabber Girl is distributing an information packet to school principals that will raise their awareness of this problem and present them with guidelines and an action plan for managing food allergies in their schools, materials provided by The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN).

In addition to distributing peanut-free Delisheries, Clabber Girl is currently test marketing the industry's first peanut-free baking mix in grocery stores across the country.

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Founded in 1850, Hulman & Co is America's largest producer of national-brand retail baking powder. Its Clabber Girl brand is one of the oldest and most trusted trademarks in the United States. For more than 150 years, the company has earned the trust of home cooks and culinary professionals alike, with food products ranging from coffee and spices to cornstarch and baking powder. In the past, the company has focused on its core business of baking powder. Recently it has expanded its offerings to include a broader range of cooking and baking ingredients, as well as some specialty mixes and custom leavening systems, establishing Clabber Girl as its flagship brand. www.clabbergirl.com

As Indiana's only comprehensive hospital dedicated exclusively to the care of children, Riley Hospital for Children, a part of Clarian Health Partners, has provided compassionate care for more than 80 years. More than 200,000 inpatient and outpatient visits occur at Riley annually; patients come from throughout Indiana, the nation, and the world. The Riley Children's Foundation supports Riley Hospital for Children, Camp Riley for Youth with Physical Disabilities and the James Whitcomb Riley Museum Home. www.rileykids.org

ForestersTM is a financial services organization, inspired by helping children, which offers products such as life insurance and investments. Foresters invests time, money and resources to raise funds and strengthen non-profit children’s organizations, such as Children's Miracle Network. Since 1990, Foresters has invested more than $15 million which has helped Children's Miracle Network raise more than $140 million through fundraising programs and has contributed $2.2 million to Children's Miracle Network. Foresters Champions Across America and Canada is a program which annually chooses a child from each of 12 hospitals in Canada and 50 in the United States to act as ambassadors and highlight the work of the Children's Miracle Network's 170 affiliated hospitals.