It is almost October which means that Halloween is upon us! Halloween should be a fun time for children, but it can be a challenge for families with food allergies. In order to better serve our community, we have an annual Trunk or Treat at our office that is free of the top 8 allergens (egg, peanut, milk, fish, nut, soybean, shellfish, wheat). This is an awesome opportunity for your child to experience trick-or-treat in a safe environment where you don’t have to worry about allergies! In addition to trick-or-treating, we will have a fire truck, teal goodie bags, prizes, games, and the Boogie Woogie Choo Choo Train! Trunk or Treat 2019 will be October 28 at 6:30pm-8:00pm at our Flower Mound location (3051 Churchill Dr, Flower Mound, TX 75022).
We have also compiled some creative tips and an allergen-free candy list you can use to ensure your kids have a fun and safe Halloween while trick-or-treating in your neighborhood.
Trick-or-Treating Tips
- Enforce a “no eating while trick-or-treating” rule, so that you have time to review all food labels.
- Use sorting through your child’s candy as an opportunity to teach him or her about hidden allergens and reading labels.
- Stock up on safe treats to trade for any unsafe candies your child might receive.
- Be careful with chocolate candies, which often contain some type of nut or nut contamination
- Always have an epinephrine auto-injector available
- Look for teal pumpkins. They mean that the house has food allergy friendly candy or non-food prizes
- Start a tradition by allowing their kids to leave their unsafe candies out for the “Good Witch” to collect and leave behind small gifts and safe treats.
- Instead of trick-or-treating, have a Halloween party instead, featuring safe and delicious treats.
- Let your kids trick or treat as normal, and then switch out their candy bucket with an allergen-safe bucket when you get home.
- Consider passing out non-food goodies such as glow sticks, stickers, finger puppets, bubbles, silly glasses, kazoos, etc.
- Keep the emphasis on the fun, rather than the candy.
Food Allergen Safe Lists
As you prepare for Halloween, use the following lists of allergen-free candies to know what treats you can stock up on. These lists are a guide only. Please always check the ingredients prior to purchasing as ingredients or processing facility may have changed.
PEANUT AND TREE NUT FREE CANDY
- Dare Foods candies
- DIVVIES (anything made by Divvies)
- Fun Dip
- Glee Gum
- Haribo Gummi Candies (anything made by Haribo)
- Surf Sweets Natural gummies and jelly beans
- Amanda’s own Sunbutter cups
- Premium Chocolatiers
- Skittles
- Peeps
- Swedish fish
- Altoids mints, Original and Cinnamon (not chocolate variety)
- Mike and Ikes
- Hershey (plain) chocolate bars, personal size only (not King or mini size)
- Hershey (plain) chocolate kisses (not King size, not Holiday/seasonal bags)
- Wonka’s Nerds and Nerds Rope
- Laffy Taffy
- Runts
- Dubble Bubble gum
- Tootsie Pops and Tootsie Rolls (anything made by Tootsie)
- Junior Mints
- Lava Balls (Gimbal’s Fine Candies)
- Lifesaver gummies
- Smarties
- Sour Patch kids-all varieties
- Whoppers
- Sweet Tarts
- Dum Dum lollipops
- Bottle caps
- Pop Rocks
- Now and Laters
- Zours
- Hot Tamales
- Red Vines
- Jolly Ranger hard candy and gummi candy
- York Peppermint Patties
- Twizzlers
- Rolos
- Spangler Candy (Dum Dums, Candy Canes, Circus Peanuts, Saf-T-Pops)
- Starburst fruit chew, lollipops and jelly beans
- Kraft Marshmallows
- PASCHA Chocolate bars and chocolate chips
- Trader Joe’s Milk Chocolate Chips, Trader Joe’s Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
- Yummy Earth Naturals
SOY FREE HALLOWEEN CANDY
- Fun Dip
- Glee Gum
- Lavaballs (Gimbal’s Fine Candies)
- Lifesaver gummies
- Jelly Bellies
- Haribo Gummi Bears
- Jolly Ranchers hard candy and gummi candy
- Skittles
- Spangler Candy (Dum Dums, Candy Canes, Circus Peanuts, Saf-T-Pops)
- Starburst
- Surf Sweets (surfsweets.com)
- Hershey’s personal size chocolate bar
- Air Nerds
- M&Ms
- Reeses
- Snickers
- Reeses pieces
- Kit Kat
- Twix
EGG FREE HALLOWEEN CANDY
- Divvies
- Double Bubble
- Fun Dip
- Glee Gum
- Hershey’s chocolate bars
- Amanda’s Own (amandasown.com)
- LavaBalls (Gimbal’s Fine Candies)
- Nerds
- Spangler Candy (Dum Dums, Candy Canes, Circus Peanuts, Saf-T-Pops)
- Vermont nut free chocolates (Vermontnutfree.com)
- Premium Chocolatiers (Premiumchocolatiers.com)
- Starburst
- Surf Sweets
DAIRY FREE HALLOWEEN CANDY
- Air heads
- Divvies
- Glee Gum
- Amanda’s Own
- Double Bubble
- Lifesaver gummies
- Jelly Bellies
- Haribo Gummi Bears
- Jolly Ranchers hard candy and gummi candy
- Lavaballs (Gimbal’s Fine Candies)
- Premium Chocolatiers
- Skittles
- Spangler Candy (Dum Dums, Candy Canes, Circus Peanuts, Saf-T-Pops)
- Starburst
- Surf Sweets
- Twizzlers
- Air Heads
GLUTEN-FREE HALLOWEEN CANDY
- Airheads
- Dare Foods Candies
- Glee Gum
- Haribo Candy (Gold Bears, Smurfs, Happy Cola, Twin Cherries, Peaches, Raspberries, Rattlesnakes, Frogs, Grapefruit)
- Hershey (Almond Joy, Baby Ruth, Bliss, Good & Fruity, Heath Toffee Bar, Candy Corn, Kisses, Milk Chocolate Bars)
- Amanda’s Own
- Lifesaver gummies
- Jelly Bellies
- Haribo Gummi Bears
- Jolly Ranchers hard candy and gummi candy
- Gimbals Fine Candies (Jelly beans, Sour Lovers, Cherry Lovers, Cinnamon Lovers, LavaBalls, Licorice Scotties)
- Lemonheads
- Premium Chocolatiers (Premiumchocolatiers.com)
- Skittles
- Starburst
- Surf Sweets
- Tootsie Pops
- Marsm
- Milk Duds
- Mounds
- Mr Goodbar
- M&Ms
- Pay Day
- Peeps
- Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Reese’s Pieces, Peanut Butter Pumpkins
- Rolo
- Snickers
- Spangler Candy (Dum Dums, Candy Canes, Circus Peanuts, Saf-T-Pops)
- Utz potato chips
- Warheads
- York Peppermint Patties
- Yummy Earth Naturals
