Following on from our gluten-free week back in May, five of us from the Food Allergy team and Terrence Collis, our communications director, decided to go nut free for a week to experience what it would be like to have this type of food allergy. We followed a variety of nut-free diets, ranging from avoiding all nuts and all products that might have contained nuts, to avoiding only peanuts.
It wasn’t just food we had to be careful with, as some face and body creams contain obscure nut oils. Unlike labelling on food, identifying nut oils used in cosmetics required knowing their Latin names, which is difficult unless you’re a botanist of sorts! Although the nut oils used in cosmetics and toiletries are refined, they should be avoided if you’re severely allergic.
By the end of the week we had a better understanding of how difficult buying and eating food is for those with nut allergies, and how much more needs to be done to improve food labelling.
Supermarket sweep
We found buying food from the supermarket took a little longer than usual. The deli counters were problematic due to the lack of labelling on the ingredients and the high chance of cross-contamination. Where allergy information was provided, it was usually simply a warning that the product may contain nuts, so pre-packed alternatives needed to be found.
Getting bread from a bakery was difficult because of the risk of nut contamination. However, pre-packed bread was generally fine, though there were confusing statements on some packaging, such as ‘Recipe: no nuts, Factory: no nuts, Ingredients: cannot guarantee nut free’. This is effectively a warning about the cross-contamination risk for individual ingredients in a product rather than the risk for the finished product itself. While this risk could seem very small, there was still some uncertainty about whether or not the food was safe to eat.
Planning safe lunches
Those of us on the most restrictive diets had to carefully plan lunch in advance, usually bringing in food from home. Available allergy information at most take-away outlets was poor or non-existent, and with a massive queue of hungry workers behind you, we had little time to ask staff. Doing a quick risk assessment of the food, without asking the staff, though, wasn’t an option. Allergens can be hidden and the consequence of taking this route could prove life-threatening. Some of the larger take-away chains provide allergy information online, so we could check for suitable options before leaving the office.
And unfortunately, chocolate was off the list of sweet treats for some of us. Finding chocolate without a nut warning was difficult, as many chocolate manufacturers include nuts in at least some of their products so cross-contamination is hard to eliminate.
Difficulty in restaurants
The hardest challenge for all of us was going out to eat in restaurants, especially on the spur of the moment. Usually we just order our meals and not give it a second thought. But during this week, we had to think very carefully about what options on the menu were safe.
We found it difficult to eat certain cuisines, such as Chinese, Indian and Thai. They use nuts or nut products in many of their dishes and there was a high risk of cross- contamination. Yet even though the range of cuisines to choose from was more limited, eating out was not impossible for most of us, except for those on the most restricted diets.
We felt a little self-conscious when asking for a nut-free meal, and ordering took longer than usual. Fear that we were holding up the serving staff and hungry friends also added to the embarrassment.
In restaurants, the key to managing a nut allergy was to be confident when communicating with the serving staff. As mature individuals we found this a challenge, so for teenagers it could be extremely difficult due to peer pressure or fear of being different.
Our nut-free week showed us that while allergy information on pre-packed foods is good, it needs to be improved in restaurants and take-away outlets to ensure that food businesses have a better knowledge of food allergy and the ingredients used in their dishes.
New food labelling rules that are currently being finalised aim to strengthen the existing provision for allergen information. This will help protect consumers with food allergies when buying and consuming pre-packed and non-pre-packed foods, and when eating out.
Once these new rules are in place, we will be working with the food service sector to help it provide the information food allergic consumers need so they can eat safely.