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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU over nutty labelling of cakes?

52 replies

LunaLoveg00d · 29/09/2016 14:59

Bake sale at work yesterday for Macmillan. We were all asked to make something at home and bring it it. No mention of any ingredients which were banned. This is a workplace which is exclusively adult - no children around.

I baked a coffee and walnut cake. The walnuts were not hidden in the cake (in fact there were no nuts in the cake at all) but I had used half walnuts on the icing as decoration. They were very visible. We had also been given little cards to write what the cake was, and who had made it, so obviously I wrote "coffee and walnut cake".

Went down to the bake sale at lunch to discover someone had scrawled in great big red letters CONTAINS NUTS.

AIBU to think that:

a) the name alone is a bit of a giveaway
b) the nuts were clearly visible and if you're a nut allergic adult then you'd probably be capable of identifying a walnut??

OP posts:
phillipp · 29/09/2016 15:05

You would think so.

However I was a fitness expo a few years ago and all the food stalls had to have signs saying the peanut butters they were selling, contained nuts.

Even then someone claimed to have had a reaction at one of the stalls and claimed there was no signs (there was) . People are so afraid of being sued.

Gottagetmoving · 29/09/2016 15:05

YANBU to think a and b
They are not being unreasonable to highlight it to cover themselves in case someone with an allergy did indeed eat them

AverageGayLadAtChristmas · 29/09/2016 15:07

I'd want to be petty and write "No, it doesn't, it simply has them on top for decoration".

Seriously though, YANBU, it's like being surprised to find carrot in a carrot cake Hmm

Original poster
LunaLoveg00d · 29/09/2016 15:07

If I were management and had a person on my staff who knew they were allergic to nuts and ate a slice of coffee and walnut cake, I'd sack them for being so stupid! Grin

Had I been asked to bake things which were nut free, gluten free, suitable for vegetarians etc not a problem. But the exact instructions were "bake anything".

OP posts:
phillipp · 29/09/2016 15:09

I don't get what that has to do with anything.

The fact that you made a cake with nuts on it, is fine.

They are just covering themselves by labelling it.

AverageGayLadAtChristmas · 29/09/2016 15:10

Wait, Luna, is that a pun in your thread title??

Gottagetmoving · 29/09/2016 15:10

Why is the sign annoying you so much?

Sparklesilverglitter · 29/09/2016 15:12

I think labelling the cake as " coffee and walnut cake" was good enough for an all adult cake sale. I mean if an adult can't work out from that walnuts are on the cake somewhere they probably shouldn't be let alone really

Yanbu

HermioneJeanGranger · 29/09/2016 15:13

It's annoying because surely the fact that the cake is called "coffee and walNUT cake" is enough of a sign that the cake does, in fact, have nuts in/on.

Why do you need another, unecessary sign on top of that?

Eatthecake · 29/09/2016 15:15

YANBU OP

It was an all adult sell so no worries over DC not understanding.

Labelling a cake as coffee & WALNUT should of been enough for an adult to know it contained WALNUT.

I'd expect a lemon drizzle to have lemon
I'd expect a carrott cake to have carrott
I'd expect a coffee and walnut cake to have walnut, why because I am an adult

BarbarianMum · 29/09/2016 15:18

Well it is actually pretty unusual for peanut butter to contain nuts as peanuts are legumes, not nuts. Packets of peanuts say 'May contain nuts' on them not because they have peanuts on them but because they may contain traces of tree nuts (hazel nuts, pecans, cashews etc).

So your peanut butter was telling people allergic to tree nuts but not peanuts that it was not safe for them to eat.

PenguinsAreAce · 29/09/2016 15:19

YABU

Why does it matter to you? Allergies can be life and death, so clarity is a good thing.

I know someone with a severe nut allergy who ate satay because (having never eaten it) she had no idea it contained nuts and was not clearly labelled. It was v serious. Belt and braces is sensible.

MerlinsScarf · 29/09/2016 15:19

YANBU... But were there other less obviously nutty cakes there too? If someone was already labelling, say, a plain sponge made with ground almonds, then I can picture someone just deciding to label all the nuts in one go.

fairiedemon · 29/09/2016 15:27

I have a nut allergy that results in Anaphylatic shock which can, and does, kill. Attitudes like the OPs do not help with having to live with this life threating condition.

FWIW I avoid baked sales like the plague anyway due to the level of cross contamination. Even sharing a knife

fairiedemon · 29/09/2016 15:27

With a nutty cake could transfer enough protein to cause a reaction.

Oysterbabe · 29/09/2016 15:29

If someone with a nut allergy needs the words "contains nuts" on a coffee and walnut cake to prevent them eating it then we are fighting against natural selection in keeping them alive.

Sparklesilverglitter · 29/09/2016 15:32

I'm fully aware of how serious nut allergies can be BUT op made a coffee and WALNUT cake if you had an allergy would you buy that cake and assume if didn't have nuts in it?? Confused do you really need the this coffee and walnut cake contains walnuts label really?

HermioneJeanGranger · 29/09/2016 15:32

Are people reading the OP? Confused

This isn't a plain cake with no reference to nuts in the title. It's a cake with walnuts clearly visible on the top which is labelled coffee and walnut.

Do we really need another sign saying "may contain nuts"?!

BarbaraofSeville · 29/09/2016 15:32

Sympathies fairie but I would have thought that people with serious nut allergies are very likely to give things like home made cake a wide berth simply because, like you say, you have no idea about any cross contamination or hidden ingredients. Does the lemon or chocolate cake have ground almonds in for example.

But when you can see by the name and the visible walnuts, adding a 'contains nut' allergy warning is just unnecessary pedantry.

fairiedemon · 29/09/2016 15:36

I agree - like I said I would not go near one. It's the attitude that gets me. Why is making someone's life a little easier such a bad thing?

BarbarianMum · 29/09/2016 15:39

The law says that all foods for sale that contain one of the 'big 8' allergens need to be labelled as such. It's really fucking simple. And if you label some nut containing items but not others you create a chance for misunderstanding and an accident to happen.

Just stop whining and label it so no-one else dies. And maybe be grateful it is not you or your loved ones at risk.

Gottagetmoving · 29/09/2016 15:40

It's annoying because surely the fact that the cake is called "coffee and walNUT cake" is enough of a sign that the cake does, in fact, have nuts in/on

It is amusing rather than annoying. God help anyone's stress levels if a sign like that 'annoys' them.

Ginslinger · 29/09/2016 15:42

Oysterbabe has just made me do a genuine LOL Grin

MrsGsnow18 · 29/09/2016 15:45

This is just the society we live in today where everyone is afraid of being sued. For a while in work we had signs up saying 'this is a nut free zone, it is important no nuts enter this area' as we had a member of staff who had a bad allergy. Someone vandalised the sign so that it read 'it is important no nuts enter this area- exception the nuts that work here'

It made us all laugh... But it was very sad when we were gifted a box of celebrations and had to throw away all the snickers!! Shock

blaeberry · 29/09/2016 15:46

But it wasn't a coffee and walnut cake. It sounds like it was a coffee cake.