Heather McPherson |  Sentinel Staff Writer                                     December 19, 2007

With a million details to worry about before her Dec. 29 wedding, Bernadette Krupa wasn't looking forward to baking her own wedding cake.

"I'm the bride, for goodness' sake," she said. "I shouldn't be concerned about the cake, too."

Three weeks ago, the Longwood nurse -- who is allergic to gluten, a protein found in flour and other foods -- discovered Liberty, a new allergen-free bakery in Oviedo. With that, the busy bride was able to cross a major item off her to-do list.

"I'm compromising but being careful," she said. "I'm having a bottom layer for the other guests, and Liberty is making the top layer that will hold the cake topper. It will be far away enough so it won't be contaminated by the other cake's ingredients. But I will only eat from that layer."

Krupa's reaction to gluten manifests in severe abdominal discomfort. More than 12 million Americans suffer some degree of food allergy, and nearly 30,000 of them end up in hospital emergency rooms each year, according to the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network, a nonprofit national resource for consumers and health professionals.

These are Liberty's customers -- kids and grown-ups alike who never have been able to have a Christmas cookie or a birthday cake from a bakery.

Since it opened Nov. 17 in the far back corner of the Aloma Business Center, word has quickly spread among the hundreds of Central Florida families who must avoid most mainstream bakeries.

At Liberty, they can find cookies, bread, cupcakes and moist, rich brownies free of gluten, wheat, casein, corn, soy and nuts.

Rigorous requirements
Owners Laura Costanzo, a mother of three children who is treating a son's autism with dietary intervention, and Sheila Sollie, who also has an autistic child and another with food allergies, have a lot on the line.

They mortgaged homes, depleted savings and committed themselves to the lifestyle this kind of specialty bakery requires: rigorous early-morning hours and cleaning practices, a strict separation of rooms so that customers cannot bring one speck of a problematic ingredient inside and scrutiny of everything right down to the cupcake papers.

"We have children, so we know the fear that some parents have of simple everyday treats," Costanzo said. "If you are going to do this, you have to it all the way."

Specialty bakeries such as Liberty are rare, said Cara Ross, membership director of the Retail Bakers of America, a national trade association. "But it's a trend we're watching because these businesses are meeting a great need. Committing to the allergen-free protocol is difficult, but we expect this segment to grow."


A growing problem
The incidence of food allergies in the U.S. has doubled during the past 10 years, said Jennifer Love, marketing and media communications manager for the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network.

"Scientists don't know why, but they're trying to find out," Love said. "One theory is that, because children are exposed to fewer germs than our bodies are used to dealing with, the immune system, deprived of a full-time germ-fighting job, misidentifies certain foods as harmful."

Costanzo's dedication and passion caused a tense moment with a Health Department inspector even before the bakery opened.

"I told him I'd prefer that he come at the beginning of the day before he visited any other bakeries," she said. "He got a little angry and told me he could come any time he wanted."

Later the inspector told Sollie, who handles the business side of the bakery, that he understood their concerns and would put on fresh garments before checking out the baking and storage rooms.

"I raised my voice a little, but customers who buy our baked goods trust us to keep their children safe," Costanzo said.

For schoolteacher Devorah Kenney-Benson of Altamonte Springs, the resource is a welcome holiday gift.

"This month I bought my son, Ari, his very first bakery birthday cake," said Kenney-Benson. "He just turned 10, and I have never been able to order a cake like other moms. I work and having that convenience and peace of mind is a great relief.

"Unless you deal with this daily," she said, "you have no idea what a void they have filled in Central Florida."

Heather McPherson can be reached at hmcpherson@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5498.