Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Food Allergy Awareness Week (In Canada)

Created by The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) in 1997, this is the 14th Annual Food Allergy Awareness Week (FAAW). The posts on Twitter and FB are plentiful and helpful. The Allergy-Free Boston Cream Pie recipe posted by Cybele Pascale, award-winning author of two allergy-free cookbooks, looks amazing.

So, what's going on in Canada? FAAN is well-known up here, but it is primarily American. While the information is useful, the programs don't apply to allergic and atopic Canadians. FAAN is a member of the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Alliance (FAAA). Here in Canada, we have two organizations which are also members - Anaphylaxis Canada (AC) and the Quebec Food Allergy Association (AQAA).

So, I searched on Google (apparently they don't want their name to be used as a verb anymore) for events. For Canadians, FAAW was actually last week, May 1-7, according to the Allergy Foundation of Canada, which doesn't really exist anymore. Last year, May was Food Allergy Awareness Month (FAAM) according to Anaphylaxis Canada. But, this year...no mention of it. Even the link on Health Canada's website has generic info. AC hosted their Spring Conference at the Ontario Science Centre on May 7th, which I missed, unfortunately (Next year!).

EpiPen and AAIA have food allergy walks planned across Canada, but other than that I'm stumped!
There's no mention of FAAW or FAAM on either site.
At this point, I'll admit my confusion. So, I'm taking this to Twitter to see what I can find. Feel free to comment, too.

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