The Food Standards Agency is urging health professionals to strongly advise their peanut allergic patients to always ask whether the food they are purchasing in places such as restaurants, sandwich bars or bakeries, contain nuts. They are also to be advised to ask whether peanuts have been ground with tree nuts, such as almonds or cashew nuts.
This follows two recent deaths resulting from an allergic reaction to peanuts in people with known peanut allergies. The food they had consumed had been ordered from takeaway restaurants and it appears that “they had either relied on the menu descriptions or on the fact they had previously bought the same dish from another restaurant with no adverse reaction”. Current law does not require restaurants to confirm in their menus whether dishes contain allergens such as nuts. However, it will become a mandatory requirement when new European Legislation comes into force in 3 years time.
If you have suffered from an allergic reaction to nuts, when you were told that the food you had purchased did not contain them, one of our experienced lawyers can provide you with advice and assistance in relation to any possible claim that you may have.