Allergen Cross-contamination with a Keurig? Maybe!
At my old job, we had a Keurig machine and K-cups of coffees, teas, and hot chocolates for the students in my program. Ah, modern day high school student incentives! Not too shabby, eh? One student has a variety of food allergies and I realized that it might not be safe for her to enjoy the Keurig, so I mentioned the possibility of cross-contamination. K-cups bear labels indicating possible cross-contamination with peanuts and tree nuts, and I’ve noticed a tiny amount of residue from the K-cups does remain in the machine. Depending on one’s level of sensitivity, that might present a problem. The student wisely chose to forego the cup of hot chocolate.
Keurig addresses the question of allergens in K-cups on their website:
“What allergens are contained in your K-Cup® packs?
Answer
Flavored coffee K-Cup® packs made by Coffee People®, Gloria Jean’s, Green Mountain Coffee® and Timothy’s Coffee® do not contain any nut proteins. They declare that their flavored coffees are free of all nut allergens because the flavored coffees are all flavored in separate vats from the non-flavored coffees. Even though there are no nut proteins used, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters performs a thorough clean-down between flavors during the production process.
Hot cocoa K-Cups may contain milk, soy or tree nuts so please refer to the K-Cup® packs detail page for specific nutritional information about a hot cocoa K-Cup® pack:
Café Escapes Mocha Specialty K-Cup® packs
Café Escapes Dark Chocolate Hot Cocoa K-Cup® packs
Café Escapes Milk Chocolate Hot Cocoa K-Cup® packs
Café Escapes Chai Latte K-Cup® packs
Green Mountain Coffee Hot Cocoa K-Cup® packs
Timothy’s White Hot Chocolate K-Cup® packs
Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Hot Cocoa Packet
Additionally, all coffee and tea K-Cup® packs are egg, dairy and gluten-free”
Keep in mind there are faux “K-cups” that go by other names which are compatible with Keurigs, so there may be additional allergen information available for those products. You can never be too careful!
