My biggest takeaway from this course has been on how diverse and large that the food industry really is. We discussed a large range of topics in such a small time and it really opened my eyes to many new aspects about the food industry that I had never considered before. Like allergens in food are a huge deal obviously, but I never really thought about how much cross contamination that there really is, and that people avoid certain foods because of potential cross contamination. I don’t know why I never considered this because it seems so obvious, plus my best friend has Celiac disease and when we go out we always go to a 100% gluten free restaurant in Omaha, called Veg.Edible. By the way even though it’s gluten free it’s good, although pricey (but that is expected in Benson). And when I buy her food related things I always triple check to make sure that it’s gluten free certified and could not possibly contain any gluten derived ingredients.
I also had never really known that most food is produced in mega facilities that are bigger than a football field, and that the process is so mechanical. It really makes me wonder how things can be made more accessible to people with different dietary requirements if it is all made on the same lines, because I can understand now how frustrating it must be for a food to say it’s gluten free, peanut free, dairy free, but really not be and damage their health! Less than 4 ppm for someone to not have an allergic reaction to something is so frighteningly small and I am really glad I don’t have any food allergies or food sensitivities but I know a lot of people who do, like my dad who has an intolerance for fructose which is pretty rare but it definitely also limits the foods you can eat. I think it’s really cool that we have an allergen lab on campus to hopefully learn more about allergies and better the health and safety for people who have them.