Corn may cause allergic symptoms as a contactant (talcs, bath oils and powders, starched clothing and corn adhesives) as an inhalant (fumes from vegetable forms of corn as they cook) and as an ingestant (a s corn and corn products are eaten).

COMMON SOURCES OF CORN

Alcoholic Beverages & Vinegars
All ale, beer, brandy, gin, whiskies, and vodka when manufactured in the USA are usually fortified with corn. Most domestic wines contain corn except for California wines of 13% alcoholic content or less. California sparkling wines, and California wines above 13% alcohol are allowed to be fortified with corn. Imported wines and brandies are usually corn free. White or acetic acid vinegar is usually derived from corn and is used commercially for salad dressings, pickles, sauerkraut, and sauces.

Corn Meal
Buckwheat, oatmeal or corn meal is scattered on the hearth before baking panless loaves of bread. This layer may be removed by cutting one quarter of an inch off the bottom of the loaf. Do not scrape it off. Corn meal is also used in cereals, scrapple, mush, johnnycake, Indian pudding, and other recipes, as well as the batter for deep frying foods.

Corn Oil
Corn oil is comparatively inexpensive and occurs in grease for deep fat frying and oil in salad dressings.

Corn Starch
Cornstarch is used as a thickening agent in gravies, icings and frostings, pies, sauces, white sauce and many other items. Many baking powders contain cornstarch. Most tablets, pills and capsules contain cornstarch as filler. Starched clothing and beddings, and adhesives in shoes may cause contact symptoms. Cornstarch is also dusted on many brands of paper cups and plates, waxed and plastic containers, and plastic bags to prevent foods from sticking to them. There are aerosol starch preparations for laundry use in the home. When sprayed, these preparations would be inhaled as well as contacting the skin.

Corn Sugars (Dextrose & Glucose)
These sugars are derivatives of cornstarch. Corn sugar does not become sticky and imparts a smooth texture to candies. It is used in nearly all commercial chocolates and caramels, cough drops, hard candies, lozenges, and suckers. The malted preparations used in ice cream, candies, and cereals are derived from corn and wheat. Most bacon, canned fruits, ham, ice cream, jell, jams, preserves, processed cheese, and soft drinks contain corn sugar. Corn sugar is the most common sugar used for intravenous feeding. Synthetic vitamin C, citric acid of commerce, Sorbitol, and Mannitol are derived from corn sugar. Corn dextrins and adhesives are used on stamps, envelopes and many other products. Some cigarettes are blended with corn sugar.

Vegetable oils are not required to be identified on commercial labels so one must assume that commercial products containing oils will include some amount of inexpensive corn oil. Sugars also do not have to be designated as being corn, cane or beet for labeling purposes. This requires, then, avoidance of all commercially sweetened products in order to totally eliminate corn from one's diet.

Always read labels. When inquiring whether a product contains corn, ask about each item by its individual name under the ripe corn list. For example, when checking a bakery product, ask if the product contains any corn flour, corn meal, corn starch, corn oil (Mazola), corn sugar (dextrose), or corn syrup. Do not accept the word of untrained personnel unless you inventory your inquiry by every specific name of ripe forms of corn.

The following is a list of products that may contain corn. Corn-free brands of canned goods, baked goods, frozen foods, jams, etc. can be found. Ripe forms of corn are corn meal, corn oil, cornstarch, corn sugars, corn syrups, grits or popped corn.