A few months ago we had a shock. We took our 8 year old granddaughter home from school. She picked up a recorder to show us what she’d learned. Her 2 year old brother had been playing with it minutes before, after eating peanuts. She started to play, her lips swelled like a balloon, she started choking as her throat swelled. That was just the dust of peanuts around the mouthpiece … she’s always hated the smell of peanuts and had never eaten them, thank goodness. We gave her children’s anti-histamine liquid … you should always have some in the house. You never know. Ice too slows it spreading. Fine. So she went to the GP, a useless trainee, who told her “So, just don’t eat peanuts” and refused point blank to give her an epipen. Too expensive. Easy advice in the days when virtually every supermarket pack says “may contain peanuts.” Then he said he didn’t know if there were any tests or how to get them. And he wasn’t offering any.
Of course we then paid for a private allergy assessment with skin prick tests, as you have to do in NHS 2019. Fortunately, it’s only peanuts, and the consultant specialist wrote and instructed our GPs (allegedly they are medically qualified) to give her epipens. The specialist said she needed them at home, when travelling and one should be held at her school. He trained her how to use it too. The school was quite used to this and has them for other kids. They knew much more about it than the GP and the teachers know how to use them.
OK, so she is is now so nervous about eating ANYTHING without studying the small print on the packet. Since the recent legal cases involving sandwiches with peanut residue, every supermarket is covering their backs.
Virtually all the biscuits in Waitrose and everywhere else have the lawyer-warning. MAY ALSO CONTAIN NUTS AND PEANUTS.They almost certainly don’t but they are “produced in a factory where peanuts are present.”
OK, but Sainsburys have gone a step WAY further. This is on Clawson Rutland Red cheese from the deli counter:
It should not be funny, but “may contain milk” is pretty funny on cheese. These bastards at Sainsburys legal department are making sure they bear no responsibility for ANYTHING. I never liked the Sainsbury family 19th century impetus to immortalize themselves on art galleries at taxpayers expense … others just give a donation. But this is ludicrous. She cannot eat a piece of Red Leicester cheese (which is what Rutland Red is a superior form of).
It may contain “molluscs”? What? They have snails in the factory crawling over the cheese? Tell us more.
It may contain “crustaceans”? Celery? Mustard? Soya? Sesame? Spelt? Kamut? Barley? Rye? Eggs? Fish?
How? It’s F*CKING CHEESE. Of course they’re covering the contents of the entire deli counter. The piece I bought had been shrink wrapped by the producer until they cut it for me.
I’ll add that it says “suitable for vegetarians”. Really? So it does not contain rennet? That’s often true of Feta cheese and Mozzarella, but unusual with an English hard cheese.
ADDED: Long Clawson Dairy responded very well:
the allergens listed on the label you received from Sainsbury’s is due to the product being sold on a deli counter, alongside other products that may contain the listed allergens. This allergen list is compiled by Sainsbury’s and we do not have any control over their in store procedures or labelling. … we operate a nut and sesame free site. In addition Rutland Red is vegetarian as we use vegetarian rennet in our products – this is standard practice for most dairies.
Look at the FOOD FOR THOUGHT range. They have the courage, and the clear kitchen distinction to be able to print NUT FREE on the packet.
It can be done: Food for Thought … NUT FREE
They should all be able to do this. Given the publicity, peanuts and nuts should be on totally separate production lines everywhere. Even if you go to the “free from” ranges at supermarkets, which state whether they are free from wheat, gluten, egg or dairy, you still find the nuts and peanuts warnings.
Not easily, there’s a fold over flap on the back of the packet, which has the default position of a nutrition content notice.
This is what you see on the back
Ah, but if you turn the flap over, you find the nut warning hidden away:
same pack: hidden under the fold. Legal get-out, not informative. But is the consumer expected to have folded over the flap?
The thing is, wheat and gluten and dairy allergies tend to upset the digestive system. Peanut allergies can kill you. If you\re going to have a nut allergy warning, do not put it under a fold, especially on something where you don’t expect nuts. Marks & Spencer do it much more clearly … nut allergy symbol and highlighted warning box, and this is on Coffee & Walnut cake where one would expect to find nuts:
Marks & Spencer warning is how it should be
NUT FREE for foods that do not normally contain nuts should be the default position. Red Leicester Cheese fits that default position. Peanuts are really dangerous for many people, so isolate the peanuts rather than reverting to the blanket “in a factory that may contain” get-out. The airlines have stopped serving them. Can’t afford a reaction at 30,000 feet.
Be careful though. While UK and American manufacturers have to list “produced in an environment with nuts or peanuts” other countries don’t. We spent ages reading packs and assembled a supermarket basket full of biscuits without warnings – then realized they were all German, French, Spanish and Polish. They just don’t print the warnings, so it is positive that Sainsburys and other UK supermarkets do.
But in the end, according to Sainsburys deli counter, this little girl can’t even eat a piece of cheese? We knew she’d never find savoury biscuits for cheese without a disclaimer, but we had hoped cheese and an apple was safe.
The thing is, it would not cost Sainsburys or Tesco or ASDA or Waitrose or any other major food retailer anything. They have so much clout with their suppliers that they can just instruct them to separate all nut containing foods into a separate area.
Until then, we will vote with our feet. The supermarkets are all together with the peanut warnings on biscuits and cakes, but the warning on cheese is a whole different dimension.
So … Screw Sainsburys! Doubly screw their lawyers!
[…] Allergies … and lawyers. A heartfelt rant on my blog. The message is “Don’t shop at Sainsburys if you have any allergies” – well, that’s according to their own extensive disclaimers on what might be contained in … wait for it … cheese! […]
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