# Allergic to pellets



## Paulie420us

Has anybody know someone or heard of some one being allergic to pellets I know of 3 took awhile to figure out what was causing these people to have a food allergy but finely figured it out. Smoked over wood, chips and sawdust same meal no problem , pellets had trouble breathing not like rush to hospital but issues. Crazy


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## DanMcG

What brand of pellets are you using? I thought pellets were just sawdust, pressed into the pellet shape, with no fillers or binders.


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## SmokinAl

Sounds like something wrong with the pellets.
Look on the bag & see what is in the pellets.
Al


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## TNJAKE

Make sure they are cooking pellets and not heating pellets for a stove?


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## krj

TNJAKE said:


> Make sure they are cooking pellets and not heating pellets for a stove?



Definitely this, stove pellets can have a lot of nasty stuff in them. It'd be almost like using treated lumber in your smoker.

If they are cooking pellets, the person may have an allergy to the particular wood.


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## Paulie420us

It was me that cooked . I used the pellets from academy  sporting goods and kroger store all different flavors on a treager.
Pellets said they were gust sawdust. I read the bag.The only thing I can think of is the sap  Concentration in them. I dont know got me baffled


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## TNJAKE

Paulie420us said:


> It was me that cooked . I used the pellets from academy  sporting goods and kroger store all different flavors on a treager.
> Pellets said they were gust sawdust. I read the bag.The only thing I can think of is the sap  Concentration in them. I dont know got me baffled


 Do you use any kind of chemicals when you clean the smoker?


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## PNHuber

Could be a wood allergy, I was making a cherry table in my wood shop and the wife had a bad allergic reaction, testing found she was allergic to cherry wood.


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## stillaqua

In woodworking, there are lots of woods, mostly exotic, that can be skin and lung irritants, but they don't usually cause serious allergenic (anaphylactic) reactions, just temporary irritation of the skin or throat. However, four of the woods commonly used for smoking food (alder, maple, oak and mesquite) are on the possible list. However if for example, food smoked with mesquite chips or dust don't have an effect but pellets do, there is some binder in the pellets causing the irritation and it's not the wood itself.


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