Supermarkets and labelling for the peanut allergic

[Mumoftwokids]

Hi,

I was just wondering if anyone knew which supermarkets distinguished between peanuts and nuts or knows if they all do and I have never noticed!

The reason I ask is I have always avoided all foods that may contain nuts for DS and now switching from shopping in tescos to Sainsbury's, I realised that their foods appear to distinguished between nuts and peanuts. This is a bit of a revelation because this means that potentially, this might open up a whole new world of new foods which I have previously banned (especially in the cake aisle and lollies and ice creams!).

If anyone is interested, we were told to avoid all nuts in case of cross contamination and the risk that DS could become allergic to tree nuts in the future. He was diagnosed at 13 months old and he is now 7. Last time we were at the allergy clinic was about 3 years ago. I am wondering if there is any more up to date info regarding the 'avoid all nuts' advice.

One of my brothers has a peanut allergy, and from recollection I don't know of any supermarkets who differentiate. I think the risk of cross-contamination is too big. M&S seem to be a particularly bad case though, as so many of their products are labelled unsafe.

I think most people are still told to avoid all nuts because of the risk of cross-contamination (going by what I have read on these boards). That's certainly what we were told.

M&S do seem to put nut warnings on a lot of things!

Hi Mumoftwo,

Yes, I don't know all the legal details, but I'd say you were right. Increasingly labelling seems to distinguish between peanuts and nuts in general (I guess they often mean treenuts?), but by far the best supermarket I've found is Sainsbury's. Did you realise that they have a peanut-safe list of their own brand food online that they update every month? We have only been doing this for a few months, but I've found it a huge help. Tesco on the other hand I've gone right off because I find their distinctions quite useless.

To answer your peanuts/all nuts question, my son was diagnosed last September and our consultant told us not to be too worried about occasional contact with tree nuts, even though they are often processed with peanuts. For this reason we still eat Sainsbury's branflakes, even though they may contain traces of tree nuts (not peanuts) because even if he ingests a small amount of tree nut, the contact that that tree nut may have had with peanuts is (theoretically) negligible in our case. I know of many parents who would not make this choice however. I would only expose him to 'may contain traces of nuts' however if it was a Sainsbury's product that I could double check against the peanut list.

Does any of this make sense?

SBx