My 80 year old mom seems to be allergic to foods containing citric acid.
She has always been allergic to oranges, but lately it seems that anything containing citric acid makes her itch like crazy
We don't really know what all has citric acid in it, even though we read labels, sometimes it's there and not listed specifically. It's been trial and error, and when it's error, she itches.

Does anyone know where I can find a list of prepared foods that contain citric acid?

I did not find a list, but I did find this, which should help.

Also, citric acid is in an amazing number of household cleaners and personal hygeine products; just incase they could be contributing to the problem you might want to look at those too.

Here is a site that may be able to give you more assistance also.

Some interesting reading yes...thanks.

I've looked everywhere for a list, and can't find one.

This is something we've dealt with for months now, so we're aware of the cleaners and toiletries. It's the foods with hidden citric acid that's driving us nuts.

Something I found out later after I posted (I was still trying to find a list) is that other people with this allergy say that its a common food additive, but that what its in changes all the time. Like, it won't always be in a product, but suddenly it will be.

Man, I thought gluten and lactose intolerance were hard to deal with!! This sucks!

No kidding....and one thing I learned in reading one of those sites is.....it seems to be commonly dismissed by doctors. My mom said the same thing.

It's like the old joke....*My arm hurts when I do this*...*Well don't do that*

Mother is almost afraid to eat, which has caused her to lose weight. Which I don't think is a good thing at her age. SHE, on the other hand, still thinks she needs to diet so she'll have a waistline....at 80 years old...who cares about a waistline, just be healthy.

Doctors are stupid sometimes--my husband hurt his back, the doctor didn't see anything in the xray, so suddenly it "wasn't a problem". Isn't PAIN a problem??

I hope you all can sort this out. One thing I did read was that all natural foods tend to have less citric acid in them (presumably because with natural foods there is less concern over them looking perfect?). You might look in health food stores if you have any near you.

Another complication is, Mother is 90% blind and I am 1700 miles away. She does have help that shops for her, and they are good about reading labels. But that makes shopping take 4x as long. And she does a lot of her own cooking so this has taken away a lot of the convenience foods that she was able to do for herself.

Oh well....I'll keep looking for that list.

Check out F.A.C.T.S. Labelling. Scroll down to the 'Fruit & Citric Acid' section, there you will find a list of hidden ingredients found on labels.

quote:

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Originally posted by JerseyTomater:
Check out http://www.allergyfacts.org.au/label.html Scroll down to the 'Fruit & Citric Acid' section, there you will find a list of hidden ingredients found on labels.

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Your name may be Tomater, but to me, you're a PEACH!!....very helpful to know the other names for citric acid.
Thanks!!!

quote:

Allergic to Citric Acid

The discovery of citric acid has been credited to the 8th century Islamic ... food intolerance it is often described as a "pseudo-allergic" reaction.

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This message has been edited. Last edited by: MrsS,