Nut free desiccated coconut?

[InEveryDreamHomeAHeartache]

Does anyone know where you can buy desiccated coconut that does not carry a "may contain nuts" warning?

I've tried Sainsbury's , Waitrose and Asda so far without any luck.

It's so frustrating when you can't even buy your own raw ingredients to make things

If anyone can help, it would be much appreciated.

Suma's doesn't seem to be a may contain.

What's the recipe? I may be being an egg, but from my experience with fresh coconut, it'd be pretty easy to desiccate your own

I thought EVERYTHING said 'may contain nuts'. Surely you can't avoid every single item that has that on the packet? I'm sure desiccated coconut will be fine wherever you buy it from.

jilted thank you so much for the Suma link, that looks perfect!

rooty I specifically wanted it to make the granola recipe in the Mumsnet Top Bananas cookbook, as well as a few other cake recipes I've been holding onto. I did wonder if there was any way of making your own especially when I was starting to get desperate and if you think it's possible, I'd be intrigued to find out how.

disco not everything carries a "may contain" label, although at times it certainly feels like it! For people like my DS who has a life threatening allergy to peanuts, we will not risk anything that says "may contain". While this is widely assumed to be a blanket warning by manufacturers to cover themselves, there is a real risk that products can and do carry traces of allergen, as has been proven in studies. These traces even if very small can be sufficient to trigger an anaphylactic reaction.

I am guessing as usual but just grate a coconut finely - the brown furry ones, they're dead cheap to buy, everywhere, spread it out on a baking sheet and wait for it to, er, desiccate

Let's google!

www.wikihow.com/Dry-Coconut

Method 1 seems a bonkers faff but method 2 is basically what I was thinking. Not sure you'd even need a low oven, would you? just leave it out overnight.

Erm is coconut definitely not a nut then??!

As I am allergic to peanuts and have been avoiding coconut for years!

the internet has informed me that noone knows

www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/coconut.html

Nope - it's a seed I think

However I can eat peanuts but not coconut or bizarrely almond - but it's a contact allergy not a proper one

Think that's why I've been avoiding them. Ditto pine nuts!

rooty thanks for that link. I agree the 2nd method looks a lot less faff, not to mention less dangerous! (No drills or meat cleavers involved! ). I will give it a try hopefully sometime this week and let you know how it goes. If it goes horribly wrong, at least I know I can buy some online!

Sorry don't know how to do links but the Anaphylaxis campaign website has some Q & As here which includes coconut www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/what-is-anaphylaxis/faqs

Q2: Should people with nut allergy avoid coconut?
A2: The coconut is a member of the palm family and only distantly related to the tree nut. However, because of its name, people with nut allergy often feel they must avoid it at all costs. The coconut does not appear on Europe’s list of tree nuts that must always been labelled on food packages, but in the U.S. coconut is classed as a tree nut for labelling purposes.

The key question is whether coconut is likely to trigger allergic symptoms in people with tree nut allergy. We believe this is highly unlikely for most people with tree nut allergy. The botanical distance between coconuts and tree nuts would suggest that most people with tree nut allergy can tolerate coconut. There are bound to be exceptions to this, but if you are allergic to nuts and have never had a reaction to coconut it is likely that coconut poses no greater risk than many other foods. Check this with your allergist.

Drilling a coconut I snorted at that one. Fond memories of chucking coconuts at the back steps to break them for my mum when she made chicken curry for her dinner parties in the 90s

Hate to tell you this but peanuts aren't a nut either, they're a legume

I know that Jilted

Thanks OP. I have read that before but I think I must have read somewhere else that you should avoid it during my super paranoid phase and just added it to the list of things to avoid. It's not really an issue as I don't like it anyway.

Grate some coconut cream? It's just pure coconut.

Well I managed to make some and it's turned out ok! I just grated some coconut and spread it out on a baking tray and put it in the oven for about 10 mins.

It got a bit crispy round the edges because I was on Mumsnet and lost track of time but tastes fine.

Having said that, it was a complete faff and took ages to grate the coconuts (and managed to grate my thumb in the process), to end up with a relatively small amount.

I think in future I will use the link to buying some online that was further up this thread.

rooty luckily DH was around to break the coconuts, otherwise I think I would have resorted to your useful tip of lobbing them onto the back step!

I know you said you will buy it next time but that doesn't work out maybe pulsing it a little bit in a blender a couple of times might 'grate' it easier, obviously not too much otherwise it'll get too wet