Thanks for this, Lisa.  Our seven-year old Hannah had her first anaphalactic reaction and overnight hospital stay tonight in years.  So we continue to live with a steady label-reading life and obvious concern about any new products and new science like this.  Best to all out there...we do not feel so alone.   -Phil and Cathy (Hannah and Zach)

[log in to unmask] wrote:I finally spoke to someone from BioSpherix about tagatose. So far no one has
replied from Arla, Spherix or FAAN. A small bit of background on the
companies involved: BioSpherix is a division of Spherix, which is a research, and
product development firm that merged w/ Arla foods awhile back, Arla foods being
one of the biggest dairy firms abroad. To date, the only commercial
manufacturing of tagatose has been through Arla foods along w/ Pepsi the result of which
is 7-11's diet Pepsi slurpee. In an "off the record" conversation w/ one of
the biotech chemists, I learned that they have no idea if severely dairy
sensitive people will be affected by this product or not because there have been no
definite tests done. It was suggested that anyone w/ severe allergies to
dairy avoid this product until further tests are done. The process for breaking
down these proteins from whey was explained as a three-step process w/ the end
result being a substance resembling fructose. Yet, also mentioned were the
side affects of diarrhea, cramping, gas and vomiting which (though I am no
science whiz) sounds like a protein reaction rather than a sugar reaction (someone
please correct me if I am wrong).

The unspoken part of this that really worries me is that there has been no
exposure about this. Last week I was going to get my kids a slurpee, as it is
one of the few frozen desserts they can have. I had no idea about this
product? Thank God the machine was down. A friend of mine just happened across an
obscure article and mentioned the product to me, which prompted my first email
to everyone yesterday. What is also of major concern to me is that there are
several other companies looking to replicate this formula for their own
products and it has been approved in everything from food products to medicines as
well as cosmetics. Right now, there are three ingredient names for this
product: tagatose, naturalose & gaio. Who knows what else might pop up creating an
even bigger nightmare for those of us who have lives depending on careful
label reading. If I get any more info I will post and would be very appreciative
of any info anyone else would like to pass along.
Thanks,
Lisa