Nuts on planes

[Bookmonster123]

Hi

I am due to fly with DS soon, first time he’s been on a plane. DS has a peanut allergy, has epi pens prescribed. What’s the protocol about nuts during the flight.

Do I tell the airline at booking, check in or on the day? Do they always accommodate requests not to eat nuts during the flight?

Thanks

they were on there though.

more concerning was after the passenger said he wouldn’t open them again, the flight staff didn’t seem bothered.
just sort of shrugged, maybe they thought he was joking.

I’ve flown BA, virgin and easy jet in the past twelve months and all of them had nuts either on trolley or in food.

I flew with BA last summer with my anaphylactic to peanuts dd and there was definitely peanuts given as a snack to passengers. Without a doubt.

Fair enough, FWIW just been off to look at:

https://highlifeshop.com/cafe/foods/savoury?p=2

and can’t see any peanut products there but may have missed them.

The last few times I’ve flown with BA I’ve been a cheapskate and only indulged in the freebies - that’s been pretzels or crisps, but it sounds like it’s not always working as advertised, which is obviously wrong.

They weren't sold, they were given with drinks.

Someone I know has a nut allergy and she said Airlines don't offer a nut free meal option because they can't guarantee it would be 100% free of allergens.

True, and many airlines make that clear on their websites’

For example: ”Our in-flight meals do not contain peanuts or peanut products. However, they may be produced at a facility that handles peanuts”

and

“Please be advised that we cannot guarantee that our aircraft and the food served on board are completely free of products containing allergens (such as nuts, foodstuffs and any their derivatives, etc.).”

It's almost impossible if not actually impossible to guarantee a meal is nut free.

As someone who works in the airline industry it never fails to amaze me that people don't take responsibility for their own dietary requirements! We regularly have people with gluten allergies or diabetes who haven't bothered to pre order a special meal and then expect one pulled out of thin air at 38,000ft! I never fails to amaze me how stupid people can be! As for nut allergies we will always make an announcement and the vast majority of people comply happily.

This is totally untrue and depends on the airline and route. I work for an airline which only has long haul ex-UK. 14 hour flight. We had a pax advise the crew on boarding of a nut allergy. They were denied boarding as both the business and premium economy classes had catering options that included nuts. Impossible to get 30+ meals substituted at the last minute. And there was no way we were going to dump those meals and leave short of catering.

You would have thought that when thinking of airline meals, that airlines would think "maybe we shouldn't have nuts in the meals"

It's just 1 meal on a flight. I am sure that even people with particular dietary needs can have meals that don't have nuts in.

You can never eliminate the risk. But you can reduce it - and by simply making meals that don't contain nuts, you are reducing the risk.

You don't need to serve nuts on planes. You don't need to have meals with nuts in on planes.

It's not difficult.

I think nuts should be banned on flights and for sale at airports. It is a common allergy. Spoken by somebody who does not have the allergy but can understand the danger to sufferers.

I’m not an arse so wouldn’t eat nuts if there was an announcement. Even if I was surely it’s in my own selfish best interests not to eat them because if the person has a reaction the plane may be diverted delaying my journey.

@Movingtothecity

.., depends on the airline and route.

Agreed, a lot of the restictions that do exist are not law, they are airline policy dependent so flyers really need to check the T&Cs because there are a lot of differences.

Also passengers can’t insist employees make up or flex company policy on the day (rumoured to have been the the start of the problems that led to one highish profile offload mentioned upthread).

As for the actual policies themselves, anybody who has worked one will tell you airlines tend to be absolutely data and evidence driven. If there was an obvious business or safety case for a Imposing a blanket ban on nut products on all flights and in all airports it would have happened, but regardless of the anecdata it appears that evidence doesn’t support going beyond the current measures.

Finally if you browse through the T&Cs relevant to this on the major UK airlines websites you might be surprised at the major between the various policies…

Lots of companies cover their arses and won't declare something nut free just in case. Same with other allergens. Doesn't mean the meals have nuts in them.

...and what about blue cheese/brie. Lots of people have this allergy shall we ban that as well. and gluten. and all the other things that people can be allergic to? I have multiple allergies. I know what they are and when flying take every precaution to reduce the risk. but I also recognise that its not risk free. there is an argument that if you ban products like nuts on flights this could lull people into a false sense of security. what about someone who ate nuts immediately before boarding and has traces on their hands still? it is a pain having to take responsibility for your own health if you have allergies but I trust my processes to do this more than an announcement or a guarantee or other humans!!

I expect a lot of people will be willing but may forget as it isn’t second nature to not eat nuts. I would definitely know not to eat a pack of nuts. However even though it sounds stupid I can’t guarantee that I wouldn’t eat a Snickers bar as I might just see it as chocolate bar if I was jet lagged.

@mummymeister yes but nuts can be a life threatening allergy. It can literally kill someone. I don't see the problem in not eating nuts for a few hours! From someone with no food allergies. Yes someone could have residue on their hands but it's a lot less likely to cause a problem than someone shovelling nuts in their gob.

@yumyumyumy nuts are not the only life threatening allergy. People have died from skin contact with cheese for example

Any allergy can be life threatening.

A catering menu free of any of the top 14 allergens wouldn't be easy to pull together.

it is a pain having to take responsibility for your own health if you have allergies

What exactly does that mean in the context of an aeroplane? Not being able to fly ever?

Obviously if I was asked to not eat nuts on a plane, I wouldn't, but I do find it interesting the way nut allergies are treated compared to many others. I've taught children with allergies to other things such as egg, strawberries, etc which are just as serious as nut allergies. But we don't have egg free schools, or egg free flights.

The problem is, this can also create a situation where others (especially other children) don't think other allergies are as serious as nut allergies, which can lead to problems.

I would definitely be paranoid about flying with an allergy, as there may be people on the flight who don't speak english well, or don't think about the ingredients in food, so I'd want to take other precautions such as wiping down seats and possibly wearing a mask if this would help. Maybe that's overkill though?

No, it means its a pain and it can be done and if you are extremely allergic maybe yes.

But for most no.

That’s true, but contact allergy to dairy is extremely rare, whereas 1 in 50 people have nut allergy.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl Obviously if I was asked to not eat nuts on a plane, I wouldn't, but I do find it interesting the way nut allergies are treated compared to many others. I've taught children with allergies to other things such as egg, strawberries, etc which are just as serious as nut allergies. But we don't have egg free schools, or egg free flights.

My DS has Oral Allergy Syndrome. As a young child he was severely allergic to numerous things - Peanuts, egg, tomato, strawberries, kiwi and more. The peanut allergy was the big worry because he’d only have anaphylaxis if he actually ate the other things whereas it’s much easier for nuts to be a contaminant and he’d have an anaphylactic reaction on contact. Namely because they’re dusty, and people eat them with their hands and then touch the backs of chairs, door handles, taps etc.

Who knows if he’d have had a severe reaction if someone had smeared egg yolk everywhere? We don’t know because that generally doesn’t happen. He’s grown out of most of his food allergies now but is still allergic to peanuts, which is very common.

That’s true, but contact allergy to dairy is extremely rare, whereas 1 in 50 people have nut allergy.

Interesting stat.

If it’s the right order of magnitude, and I have absolutely no reason to doubt it, it means on every single one of the the hundreds of large longhaul airliners flying today there could easily be, on average, half a dozen passengers with nut allergy.

I’ll put money on there not being hundreds of medical diversions today, more likely maybe a handful worldwide and (stats/anecdata again) probability is very few of any of those diversions will due to conditions associated with nuts or food allergies.

Doesn’t that perhaps suggest that the current measures put in place by the airlines and the precautions taking by passengers with allergies or with allergies in their travelling group do actually work.