Tag-to-Go spreading allergy awareness
After his second near-death experience — his first was on a plane and there was a doctor on board — he’s never gone anywhere without his EpiPen, including his race car.
“I was at a restaurant and I ate a piece of cheesecake,” he told me once for a story.
“I was assured it was OK, but there was a small coating of almond paste and suddenly I got sick. I knew I was in big trouble because I’d left the EpiPen I had with me in my rental car. I got to it in time but the people I was with had to call an ambulance and they took me to the hospital.
“I don’t leave it anywhere anymore. It’s always with me.” And then there are the cookies. Oatmeal-chocolate cookies called Tag-on-the-Go, with his picture on the packaging. You can get them at Costco stores all over Ontario.
There have been a number of stories written about how all this came about.
In some, Tagliani pitches a Quebec company, La Petite Bretonne, to be a sponsor and in others they approach him.
It really doesn’t matter, however, because they teamed up in the end to produce a product that is 100-percent nut free and that had to taste good because he didn’t want to be associated with something that people weren’t going to like.
The company built an addition to their main factory to ensure no peanut or other nut contamination could take place. Tag and his wife, Bronte, were involved in the taste testing.
“They worked really hard on the taste,” he told me the other day when we were on the phone.
“And it had to be a healthy product. The percentage of oats is really high compared to a bunch of cookies that call themselves oatmeal cookies but which have very little oats. We have a ton of oats.
“We have all the right supplements — Vitamins A, D and E — but the most important thing is, you have proper the amount of oats if you eat one cookie.
“You’re a family and you wake up in the morning. Your kids — it’s tough to get ready to go to school. You eat one of my cookies and you will get the proper amount of oats as if you’d eaten a bowl of oatmeal. You know how hard it is to eat oatmeal if you are 10, 12, 14.
“And they are packaged with the peanut-free logo on it so they are OK to be put into a lunch box. A kid can take them to school and there’s no issue for people with a peanut allergy in that school.
“And the feedback has been incredible. We have people who put ice cream on it, there are people who eat them when they go on a bike ride, people that eat a cookie before they hit the gym.
“There’s some people who use them for a treat. We started with a reason but because they are so good we have good reaction from beyond the food allergy field.”
And then Tagliani dropped the clunker about why he’s so passionate about all this.
“Did you know that more than 2.5 million people in Canada have a food allergy? And only about 50,000 have the EpiPen? They can’t breathe; they could die. Why take a risk like that? And why have to worry about a peanut in your food?
“When I travel, my wife cooks my dinner and puts it in Tupperware and I take it on the plane and I have chicken, potatoes and broccoli.
“And then I have a cookie for dessert. No worries.” Tag driving up allergy awareness Alex Tagliani and his No. 18 Team EpiPen race car will be at YongeDundas Square Thursday between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. to launch the Summer of TAG Allergy-Friendly Food Drive Challenge (Race Edition).
Tagliani will be driving awareness about the importance of understanding food labels to help identify common allergens in everyday foods.
This public education event is a joint initiative with Food Allergy Canada to help collect food donations for local food banks and raise awareness about the management of severe allergies.
Racing fans in Toronto can support the food drive by donating non-perishable food items. People will get to speak with Alex about his experiences living with severe allergies.
The first 18 fans to arrive with an allergy-friendly food donation will be eligible to receive prizes such as a ticket to the Honda Indy Toronto or a signed Alex Tagliani T-shirt while supplies last.