Would you eat a packet of nuts on a plane?

The problem of course is that the airplane isnt cleaned after each flight so while there may not have been a nut allergy sufferer on your flight, there may be on the next one and now there is peanut dust on lots of the surfaces.

I think peanuts are particularly bad as they are so dusty and even a tiny bit of the dust can cause a serious reaction.

Another poster mentioned milk, but milk dries in and people are unlikely to pour milk (or cheese or bread, etc) all over their fingers and then touch the tray, seatbelt, headrests, etc.

Just think about how your finger look after eating peanuts compared to a cheese sandwich, there is much more of the allergen after the nuts. You have to wipe your hands after eating peanuts, not so much after a sandwich.

There are people who are deathly allergic to wheat, but we would all still eat sandwiches.

Do you say the same about dairy and gluten?

I love nuts but try not to eat them on public transport or in offices. They should not be served on planes. I don’t love them so much that I absolutely est them whenever I wish. I have loved ones with serious nut allergies and am therefore aware of how dangerous exposure can be for some.

But this also applies to other allergens like milk, and no one is suggesting that people forgo milk in their tea which they could splash around their seat and tray, or their cheese and onion crisps, which have all the scattering risks of a packet of nuts, or cheese toastie which can happily be smeared over any surface the person touches.

Of course I eat nuts on a plane often they are handed to me with a drink by the crew!

Given the amount of people with nut allergies I’m surprised that nuts are still considered reasonable produce in stores and restaurants - but people are selfish.

Why should she have checked? If your son had a nut allergy it’s fully your responsibility to let her know. The idea that a whole plane should refrain from eating nuts just in case one person has an allergy is ridiculous, people need to take responsibility for themselves and their children.

Yes unless there was an announcement by crew that someone was on board with a nut allergy. This happened on our holiday flights this year and also last year. They also announced no nut products would be sold on board.

Whenever this topic comes up I always wonder how often people who object normally do just tuck into a packet of nuts. A family member of mine was recently diagnosed with a nut allergy so I've (as someone who is quite keen on nuts) started having to be more cautious, but it made me realise that it's pretty unusual that I would eat pure nuts in a very public/enclosed space like a plane anyway.

Similar to the idea of banning eating/drinking in the theatre/cinema. Most people can probably go a couple of hours without food or drink but suddenly get up in arms about the principle of an option being taken away from them.

If it's a nut free zone, of course not. If the nuts are served by the airline, yes.

Yep, in business. They generally tell you if someone has an allergy. I’d not buy them proactively so it’s a no to your question I suppose but not because of allergies.

It's not her responsibility to check about other peoples' allergies

Saturday coming back from JNB, so yes, in 'recent years'

It was actually a friend of DDs having a severe milk allergy that started to make me question nut policies.

They had whole procedures in her Reception classroom over milk (as they wee also expected to serve milk and fruit to the other children at break). Yet nuts were completely banned, despite no child being allergic to nuts.
My child hadn't been in the preschool class but apparently they had done the same there and all the 3yos had managed to follow all the rules such as nor sharing and touching anyone else's food, only eating and drinking at a table, no milk, cheese etc on one certain table, hand washing etc.

On a flight earlier this year, cabin staff handed out packets of nuts.

Yes i would.

Its only this year that I've heard of not eating nuts on a plane, and i heard that from MN.

Saying that, I haven't been on a flight where they've made an announcement not to eat nuts either, so it really crossed my mind.

Nuts are a large part of many diets and a great source of nutrition.

I am not dismissing the seriousness of anaphylaxis, however I do wonder why it is always nuts that are banned from schools and have such a bad association. Especially since now we are told to introduce nuts and other common food allergens to babies as soon as they start weaning, as exposure can reduce the risk of developing allergies.

There are many other foods that people are seriously allergic to and they are not banned from public- it was only a few years back that a schoolboy died because he had cheese thrown at him. Yet the school weren't expected to ban dairy, even though this child had a severe allergy..

Yep they were selling them on our flight last week.

Eh?

its a myth that nuts are an airbourne allergy, nut dust is very heavy , the worse case senario is that someone eats nuts, touches something then the allergic person then touches it , and it transfers to their hands and then food, but even then it is considered really rare. My DS and DH have nut and seed allergies and we dont avoid nuts in their vicinity. Sesame seeds for DH is more of a problem as they seem to get everywhere in a bakery but thankfully tend to be very visible.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12013556/

The only person i know who has had anaphylaxis on a plane was actually allergic to penacillin. He had a cheese sandwich and had a reaction to what they thought could be the cheese having mould on it.

Yes, I would, without hesitation.
Unless I was made aware that there is someone close who suffers from allergy.

I fly twice a week every week and have only once heard an announcement asking people not to eat nuts.

BA serve nuts with drinks in business class.

Someone eats nuts on a flight, they then get up to use the toilet, touching the handles, toilet roll, tap. its not just about them being airborne.

They have nut m and ms on the Ryan air trolley thing unless it’s announced there is a nut allergy on board (frequent flyer(

As mentioned before nut allergies are not the main cause of allergy death in the UK - it's milk.

That’s just not true for adults. Not even close to true.

It is true for children, but only because peanuts, tree nuts and unidentified nuts are given separate groupings in the stats.
I posted this figure upthread but will do so again. It’s UK figures. Just click on the image to enlarge.