#sulphites

High levels (I avoid them like the plague)

Vinegar

Wine

Basically anything made from grapes, grape juice included. I try and avoid grapes, too.

Anything pickled at all

All alcoholic beverages except for plain vodka

Dried or candied fruit (raisins, currants, dried apple slices, apricots, dried citrus peel)

Apple juice

Unpeeled apples from the supermarket (they’re usually washed in a sulphite solution to geet rid of pests). Peel them though and you’re fine

Any baked goods containing fruit that aren’t homemade, such as shop-bought apple pie, cherry pie, hot crossed buns

Red Bull - Don’t know what ingredient it is, but it’s poison in a can to me.

Medium levels (Be wary)

Fruit juice - I am always suspicious of fruit juice unless it is freshly squeezed immediately beefore I drink it. This includes orange juice bought in a carton, bought lemon juice, the juice that tinned fruit comes in, you name it. Obviously there are exceptions but you gotta be hypervigilant with fruity things in general!

Anything tinned. There are a lot of exceptions to this one but it pays to be careful.

Anything prepackaged, ready meals, pre-prepared food

Oven chips. Anything made from dried potatoes, even french fries :’(

Pepsi/Coke/Cola. The caramel colouring is unavoidably sulphite-y, be careful!

Ribena, squash and high juice

Sweets - again there are a lot of exceptions but be very careful! (I found out the hard way with parma violets)

Anything made with fruit flavouring

Anything made with E220-E228

Be wary of all shop-bought condiments

Things made with lemon juice or lime juice as flavouring

Cordials

Preserves and Jams

Anything instant (instant mash, instant tea/coffee) or freeze-dried

Low or trace levels (I try and keep them to a minimum)

Sugar beet - not the beet itself but the process used to turn it from a root vegetable into standard sugar. It involves a lot of chemical bleaching to get the sugar to a white colour, using sulphites of course! Sugar beet is widely used nowadays in place of sugar cane, so beware

Cereals.

White bread (the flour goes through a bleaching process similar to sugar beets)

Pizza crust

Eggs (naturally contained, I’m afraid

Corn syrup solids

Cornstarch

Maltodextrin

Potato starch and potato flakes

Glucose Syrup

Gelatin and jellies

Syrups

Deli meat and processed meat, like sausages and mincemeat

Soy-based products

Nut-based products

As a general rule: I never eat or drink anything I consider to be processed, preserved or otherwise tampered with by humans if I can avoid it. If it cannot be avoided, keep it to a minimum.

Apparently (Although I’ve never tried it) fruit and vegetables that have been washed in sulphites can be made safe to allergy sufferers by washing them in a sink full of a very, very mild bleach solution. The peroxide reacts with the sulphite components of the preservatives and renders them completely harmless.