So, I was messing around in the kitchen today (nothing exploded, yay!) and since the madeline pan I bought from King Arthur Flour is very prominently stamped with “USA Pan”, I figured I’d try looking up to see if it might cost less to buy directly from the manufacturer (answer: no; KAF and UP charge the same).
BUT! I saw a whole section at the website about allergy ID pans & bakeware: it’s aluminum anodized to purple, which according to the description is the standard color in the US food preparation industry for segregating tools used to prepare food for people with food allergies. I hadn’t ever known about this (otoh, I’m not involved in the food preparation industry nor do I regularly cook or bake for people with food allergies, so I’m not surprised to have only just discovered this).
It reminded me so very strongly of Machigi’s kitchen staff at Tanaja presenting all of the human-safe comestibles on green-glazed ceramic tableware (the Marid has an exceptional ceramic craft industry) in C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner series. Delightful! And potentially useful, too.
ANYWAY, my own nerd-moment notwithstanding: if you cook for folks with food sensitivities (or have them and share your cookware with others), you probably know about this already; if you don’t know it, it might be useful to you -- of course, as always, your mileage may vary.