Worried Mom - Wine in Child's Food

If there were long term effects, I doubt we'd know what they were.

Why?

1) Because kids consume far less alcohol than they historically have (alcohol being safe to drink, while water was not... with low percentage 'small beer', ciders, etc. given to kids to drink straight... or hard alcohol - 160 proof and above whenever possible- added into the water to let sit)

2) Because nearly all western children consume alcohol to greater or lesser degree (typically in their food).

The populations to look at for effects of no alcohol consumption would be Morman and Muslim children

You are way over thinking this , relax.
when cooking with wine the intoxicating properties of the alcohol get cooked out of it by the heat.

Children in France, Spain, and Italy are given watered down wine with dinner. They are far more healthy than we are.

I often use wine (and beer and liquor) while cooking. Sometimes I even put it in the food! Ahahaha! Sorry, couldn't resist.

I have read that all the alcohol does NOT cook out, in fact it may even concentrate.

Still, I sincerely doubt there is enough alcohol in the dish to effect your child.

You are doing the right thing ordering it without wine.

I think it'll be ok!

:)

Whoa... you are WAY over analyzing.

When you cook with wine or any other alcohol, the alcohol dissipates and is not in your food.

You are not giving your child wine or alcohol when food has been prepared with wine or alcohol.

There are a lot bigger things to be worried about than this. Don't stress yourself out mom....

I make pasta bolognese from scratch all the time, and my recipe includes red wine. So far, my children appear to be neither drunk nor stupid from it.

My in-laws live in Italy, and my sister-in-law (like most Italian moms) has given her kids red wine from a very young age at dinner. For small children, it's watered down and not in a large amount. The purpose there is to learn to appreciate the art of making and appreciating fine wines (many families in their area have vineyards and make their own wine), not to get drunk. Anyway, the point is that kids in Italy do drink wine, and are perfectly fine for it. My niece and nephew are both very bright, industrious kids, and I find it interesting that they show no interest in binge drinking, unlike so many American teens. Wine has never been forbidden to them, so it's no big deal.

Bottom line, do what you're comfortable with, but wine in food is no big deal in my world. Bon appetit!

Some (not all) of the alcohol will burn off during the cooking process. You should consider how much alcohol is used in the recipe (typically not much), how much is retained as alcohol (typically not much) and per your child's serving size how much alcohol he is actually ingesting (typically not much).

As an example I looked up a spaghetti Bolognese recipe. It calls for ½ cup of white wine, making 4 servings. If 5% of the alcohol is retained (simmered for 2.5 hours), then you’ll have .025 cups (less than half a tablespoon) of wine remaining. In four portions that’s a ¼ teaspoon per serving. I would assume your child would eat about half full serving so his alcohol ingestion goes down even further (in the neighborhood of a 1/8 teaspoon or less, basically negligible in my opinion).

There are substitutes you can use if you like, though. There is also a website from the USDA indicting the alcohol retention percentages. Personally I wouldn't worry about it. I do cook with wine and I serve it to my family without any concerns. But it is each parent’s choice. Good luck.

A quick Google search ('cooking with alcohol for kids') resulted in lots of information.

http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blalcohol12.htm

Americans are way to concerned about Alcohol use. In many European countries wine is an everyday ingedient in cooking.

I'm not saying it's always okay. But the people in most European countries are much more healthy than Americans.

There is an episode of Good Eats (by Alton Brown) about coking with alcohol. Theresa is right, not all burns off, and some is more concentrated. With that said, I think your son would have to eat a BIG amount of pasta per week, to have any kind of side-effects. I'm talking more then a huge man sized serving.

As you can see from the nearby chart it doesn't all burn off. Sorry guys, in a lot of cases very little burns off. If you will please gander to the bottom of the chart you will see after 2.5 hours cooking time, that would be what is left in pasta sauce. Not enough to harm anyone unless you are allergic to the spirits. :)

Preparation Method Percent Retained
alcohol added to boiling liquid & removed from heat 85%
alcohol flamed 75%
no heat, stored overnight 70%
baked, 25 minutes, alcohol not stirred into mixture 45%

Baked/simmered dishes with alcohol stirred into mixture:
15 minutes cooking time 40%
30 minutes cooking time 35%
1 hour cooking time 25%
1.5 hours cooking time 20%
2 hours cooking time 10%
2.5 hours cooking time 5%

All alcohol cooks out of food as it is heated. That is what I have always heard from all my friends that are chefs and gourmet cooks. The flavor stays but the alcohol content is gone.

Unless he ate a dish smothered with reduced wine sauce (which could be a little intense), wine is not harmful at all if cooked. Alcohol evaporates and only the aroma of the wine is left. I am Italian and we cook a lot with wine, I can assure you that there's no permanent damage for cooking with it, as we grow up with this ingredient being used for cooking sauces, meats and even fish (white wine) overhere! What you should be concerned about is all the preservatives, dyes, hormons (in meat) and "artificial flavors" that you guys gulp EVERYDAY. I was teaching lasagna to my ex MIL, one day, and I told her to not put salt in the tomato sauce as there's already some in the can as a preservative of the tomato. She didn't even KNOW what was inside the can besides tomato! Not to mention when Thanksgiving comes: how many of you guys buys fresh green beans to make the casserole? I have always seen my friends and family use the greenbeans out of the can. How can they stay edible for so long? Preservatives! The color of the canned peas/green beans/spinach etc... just screams "unhealthy". I don't even want to mention jello, various candies or juices with incredibly bright (artificial) colors and ready-to-make cookie dough or cake mix, which are given to kids on a daily basis...Those things pile up in the body eventually.
So, believe M., wine is the least of all the problems...infact it's not a problem at all! Cook fresh produce, cook yourself! It's only way to know what you are giving to your child.

Dang near every meal I make has some form of alcohol in it. (We have a huge liquor collection which everyone finds hilarious because we rarely if ever drink!)

The PP is correct that not all the alcohol burns off when cooked or baked. There is a list out there of what percentage of alcohol is left in after cooking. (http://www.ochef.com/165.htm)

We're taught in culinary school that you put on the menu that a dish includes alcohol. Let the parents decide if their child can eat it. There is little to no harm to a child who eats a dish with alcohol in it. The child would have to eat something multiple times a day with copious amounts of liquor in it that is barely cooked in order for this to affect him/her.

I wouldn't be overly concerned.

I cook with wine for my family all the time! No worries!

Jo W's information was interesting!

I cook with wine a lot. Of course I don't use an entire bottle into the dish that I make.
But in overall proportions, per serving size and per the amount a child actually eats per serving, I really don't think it is much. They are not eating the ENTIRE dish you made. They are only eating a small amount of it. Kids, don't eat the whole pot. So in their own serving size or what they actually eat, I don't think they are getting that much alcohol per the amount you put into the dish while cooking it.

All you get is a flavor from the wine. The alcohol cooks out. So don't go overboard about alcohol in the food.

I grew up with alcohol drinks as a kid. The drinks were small but I did not want to go and binge when I was a young adult as it meant nothing to M. to have a glass of wine with a meal.

We have become so over sensitive with so many things over the years. I think of the bad food that Hitler made the Jews eat and when he thought they should be dead they were very healthy. So go figure that one.

The other S.

The alcohol cooks off ... no issues here.

Alcohol typically evaporates when cooked so unless they add extra at the end of the cooking process I would not worry...

Alcohol generally cooks off. I use white wine and red wine in many recipes and have experienced no trouble with my youngster. Please do not worry about this!

The alcohol is cooked out of the food. They can't get drunk off of it. My kids eat beer bread all the time. It's yummy!

Such small amounts will not affect your child or anyone for that matter. Nothing to worry about.

Well I just bought my hubby's favorite inexpensive red wine to put in my crockpot French dips! The rest will get drank (drunk? Someone might be! Lol) on the rest of the bottle with dinner tomorrow!

Honestly I would not be concerned!

Nothing to worry about. Like the others have said, the alcohol cooks out!

There are different types of wine for cooking and the alcohol content is low in most wines. Also all the alcohol will burn away so you are only left with the flavor. This will not do any damage to your child.

Food prepared with wine typically doesn't have have alcohol left in it by the time the dish is finished. Most of the time, the alcohol is cooked/boiled out, leaving only the taste of the wine. If you are really worried about it, talk to the restaurant and find out what percentage alcohol remains in the dish and decide whether this is an acceptable amount to you before feeding it to your son. My guess, though, is that it's probably perfectly safe (especially if you've never noticed any significant aftereffects with your son).

I gave inaccurate info and so deleted my answer.

You have nothing to worry about. When they cook the food, the alcohol is cooked out, leaving nothing but the wine taste.

Now, if he were to eat bourbon balls, that are not cooked, but put in the frig, he'd probably get drunk!

So no worrying about the pasta...

Dawn

Please relax. Although not 100 percent of alcohol evaporates during some cooking processes, much of it does. If it had truly had enough alcohol in it for him to be able to taste it, he would have hated the dish. And I would wager that a fast-food chain like Noodles is not going to invest in putting much wine, which even if cheap is still expensive compared to their other ingredients, into anything! They likely throw a dash of wine into this dish's sauce so they can claim it's a "wine sauce" for marketing purposes or whatever.

Just continue ordering this dish without the sauce or whatever contains the alcohol. But you have certainly not turned your son on to drinking by giving him this. If you went to someone's home or a fancy restaurant, then yes, I'd be sure to avoid things in wine sauces etc. because the alcohol concentration would be probably higher, but then, he would probably taste the alcohol and go, "Yuck." And even if he liked it -- it would not be enough to make him sick or get him hooked!

Do not lose one second of sleep over this, or one second out of your day worrying. Laugh about it.

alcohol burns off when it is cooked. MOST restraunts cook with alcohol. heck most people cook at home with it. it wont do ANY harm what so ever. its just the flavor of the wine

No. The alcohol is quickly and easily cooked out and the taste is what remains (or the ability to break down / tenderize meats, depending on what you're cooking, with what).
Almost EVERYTHING my grandma used to make had alcohol of some sort in it (sherry, whiskey, rum, red or white wines, etc). Much of what I cook for all of my family (toddlers included) is the same. Chili has a whole can of beer, I marinate my chicken in tequila, lime, and a little salt and pepper before grilling, or marinate it in champagne before putting it in the oven, my steak marinade has a whole pint of Guinness stout and a cup of Jack Daniels (among other things), my goat is soaked overnight in rum, much of what I cook on the stove (pastas, chicken, lamb, beef, pork, fish) have red or white wines, amaretto, or port, added to the sauce. Half the desserts I cook have rum or bourbon. It's perfectly ok.
I actually DID see someone get a little red nose once at a dinner though---the staff forgot to light the brandied cherries, and that was funny. Easy to fix though: light them at the table---it literally takes seconds to burn it off. :)

The alcohol burns out during the cooking process. There is no chance of him actually ingesting alcohol.
I find Noodles & Co. food to be really heavy. Sometimes I feel sick after eating it because it just sits in my stomach like a rock.
Anyway, I hope this helps!

i use a lot of whine to flavor food. i have a 5 year old. the alcohol burns off. your child gets nothing that will damage him :)

I think all alcohol burns off during the cooking, right?

It will be ok. the heat from cooking it, cooks out the alcohol! I use beer and sometimes whiskey to marinate chicken and weve never gotten drunk!

What in the world dish does your child eat from noodles and company that has wine in it? the only thing I could find on the menu that said wine was a red wine vinegrette. The only wine we use when cooking is when I make chicken marsalla and yes my boys have eaten it since they were babies and no problems from them so far lol.