ground pork--possible beef x-con?

[Therese's Mommy]

I gave dd some ground pork from a local farmer this afternoon. About 3+ hours after eating it she had a couple red blotches with teeny tiny hives around her mouth. They went away pretty quickly after I wiped her mouth, so it is possible it was from some sort of incidental contact with an allergen. I haven't seen her react to pork before (actually we are in the midst of a pork trial, but so far I am pretty sure she is ok with it). She did test (RAST) positive for a beef allergy and is highly allergic to milk. I don't know anything about butchers, but am wondering what is the likelihood that ground pork would be contaminated with beef. Also, I am wondering if this would most likely just be a problem with ground pork.

Thanks for any info/experiences.

Beth

[changingseasons]

Yes- that is a definite possibility.

We started special ordering our ground lamb after finding out that they DON'T clean the machines between meats. And the store we buy from always does ground beef first (because it's organic, and by regulation the organic meats must be done on a clean machine.) So we call ahead and have them do a whole bunch at once, first thing in the morning.

Same with the lamb steaks that we buy- we've actually seen more reactions from steaks than from ground, but even then it's very occasional.

[BirthKathy]

This just happened to me too. My son hasn't had pork directly yet, but I have been eating bacon and various cuts of pork for several months with good results. I tried ground pork for the first time last week, and the first few nursings afterward, my son's cheeks got very red and he got one hive. I have two more pounds in the freezer, but I'm afraid to eat it!

I don't know what it might be contaminated with. He has also tested allergic to dairy, and beef was severe on his ALCAT test. Lamb was moderate on the ALCAT, and Lamb, Beef and turkey were all negative on his USBiotek IGG/IGE test.

I had bought the ground pork to use when introducing pork to my son, but I think I'll just use a middle piece of a pork chop.