Nut allergy on plane

[HomeCookingWannabe]

I've been on a plane today. At the airport I bought Pret's choc almond cookie as a treat. We get on the plane and they say don't eat anything with nuts in as someone severely allergic.

So I didn't, because i'm not a dk and I want to keep someone alive.

But if said allergy person is worried about airborne transmission, surely the cookie sitting there for the 4 hour flight is worse than if i'd eaten it and it was in my tummy? It doesn't seem to make sense to me.

AIBU in thinking it's a load of nonsense?

What? The allergens in the cookie (assuming you’d kept it in some sort of packaging) wouldn’t become airborne. If you ate it and started getting crumbs etc everywhere then that’s a different story.

No because if it’s in a bag it’ll be contained. Once you get it out and it’s broken up nut proteins are then dispersed into the air.

Thanks for being considerate, as other say once it's broken up and on your hands etc it's going to spread around more than in a bag.
It's awful flying with a child with a severe allergy so thank you for making it easier.

I feel like the whole nut free thing on a plane is a bit of a false economy.

Who is to say that the person sitting in your seat on the previous flight, didn't have a peanut butter sandwich. Those planes aren't cleaned and sanitised anywhere near enough in-between flights to reduce the risk of contamination.

I read quite an interesting article recently that highlighted the airborne risk of nuts/peanuts on a plane was pretty much zero, and instead they should allow those with severe allergies to board first and do a deep clean of their seat/tray etc.

Essentially the current air filtration is so good, but the turnaround times tend to mean individual seats get nothing more than a cursory wipe, so if the previous passenger ate an entire bag of nuts on that seat, it poses a much bigger risk.

I am gluten n dairy free plus fodmapping due to IBS so very little I can eat
On a recent flight I couldn’t eat anything as the snack I’d taken had nuts n there was someone on flight with a nut allergy
Good job Prosecco n gin was still available!
I am very used to it and unless long haul I can manage without food or drink to help others

I am anaphylactic to nuts. Haven't flown for years but yes, it's a problem if people are eating nuts. I've reacted to people eating it in the same room. Ive reacted to people touching surface after eating nuts.

Almond cookie wouldn't bother me but potentially could someone with different allergy.
My nut allergy is like a sliding scale of peanuts worst to almonds least worse. Can't eat any of them but worst reaction would be peanut and cashew.

My son can't eat cashews

So if the person with a nut allergy wore a mask would that help? Genuinely asking.

Also I used to find it bizarre the snack they gave out on flights was nuts! Of all the snacks in the world..

My son doesn't react to nuts in an airborne way but he could if he touched it (or ingested it, of course).

So the risk would be if there were particles being spread about, or you touched him after eating it or whatever.

Having said this, his dairy allergy is much more severe but he's got people drinking teas and coffees and eating chocolate and cheese sandwiches all around him so, to be quite frank, we don't worry about the nuts!

We pre board and wipe down surfaces. Have flown many times without issue, though it is always worrying.

I read this too and it made so much sense.

Has there ever been a documented case of a fatal allergic reaction purely due to airborne particles? Virtually every news article only seems to mention the allergic person being given falsely labelled food (like that poor girl with the Pret sandwich) or some other situation where they actually came into direct contact with the allergen.

Surely the statistical chances of coming into contact with airborne nut particles is exactly the same as on a bus, a train, in a restaurant, cafe, classroom etc as a plane? There will always be strangers eating random foods, possibly with nuts, in public places. If someone is so allergic that they might die while being in the same enclosed space as some else eating an allergen, then why does that rule not apply to other far smaller spaces like a train carriage?

Could the allergen rule in airplanes be more about legal liability? Maybe different laws apply to accidental death or injury on planes and the airlines just need to cover their asses.

Ds has a nut allergy but we sort or assume it's not airborne and only triggered by actually ingesting nuts. On a recent flight halfway through we bought some food and asked if it contained nuts as ds has a nut allergy. They asked if he has an epipen, which he does. Immediately after the cabin crew made an announcement to all passengers to not eat any food containing nuts as there is someone on the plane with a nut allergy. I felt a bit bad and wanted to tell them that's not necessary as we assume he doesn't react to airborne particles but then left it in case it works differently on a plane with airborne particles.

I couldn't find anything concrete except that because the air on a plane is recirculated and the humidity is very low, which makes particles stay in the air for longer but also some studies questioning whether allergies can be triggered by airborne particles at all.

I was on a flight recently when they announced it and DD and I had just both finished eating snacks that contained nuts. We pressed the call button and told cabin crew who then told the family. I was feeling so awkward as I presumed that we had ruined their holiday as they would need to disembark and that we would delay the flight as their cases would need to be removed but they just stayed on the plane. On a flight since then, the announcement wasn't until we'd taken off and someone else had to confess that they had eaten something. I don't understand why they don't announce this when waiting to board.

God, nut allergies are so common now. If my children had been allergic to nuts I think it would have been very stressful.

I did think nuts were banned from aeroplanes and schools entirely. Is that not the case?

I’ve had an anaphylactic reaction to aspirin, also something we can’t identify, mangoes give me an itchy mouth and itchy back of throat, so I avoid them. I’m just starting to eat nuts after years of avoidance because I became so frightened of anaphylaxis (and because there’s something I’m anaphylactic to and we don’t know what) and also because post menopause hazel nuts trigger burning mouth syndrome (which is not an allergy but it’s freaked me a bit). Swimming in cold water can give me hives as can regular prolonged heat and sweating from exercise. Some days I just have hives for no discernible reason. I live for the day when there’s a vaccine or something to stop the allergy response. What are the chances of that?

I have other health challenges but the allergies are the most frightening. (Probably because anaphylaxis is fucking awful and sudden). Everything else I can take in my stride.

Sorry this is my fault for assuming everyone is familiar with Pret. They just put the cookie in a paper bag and fold the top over. It definitely isn't "sealed". I put it in another bag to try and reduce further

while they can’t account for everything it’s clearly a case of damage limitation. It’s hardly a huge inconvenience to others

@roselilylavender Meant to put that in my original post. Or as part of check in even. What's the point in telling people after its (in many cases) too late

It’s still contained

Chewing and breaking up a food product is what sends particles of it airborne. Which doesn't happen if you let it sit quietly in it's wrapper.

@RitaFromThePitCanteen I didn't know that, thankyou.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2dpkpjjnw2o

An article about the issue.

Ive always got bags of nuts and nut bars on me as I follow a particular diet and eat lots and lots of nuts, so Ive either just eaten them, about to eat them and have them about my person.

I thought I read on here that the biggest killer is actually milk and cheese allergies, which unfortunately doesnt help in my case as Ive usually got bits of cheese as snacks too.

Although that article focuses very much on peanuts which are not nuts, is that the same theory for actual nuts?

This happened on a flight my daughter went on last year - what annoyed her (and I saw her point) is why wasn't this announced BEFORE they got on the plane so she could have made sure she didn't buy a snack with nuts in (she'd brought a kinder bueno in the airport)