Saturday 26 April 2014

Well, It Sounds Nuts To Me…

Tesco is changing labelling to meet the requirements of EU legislation that comes into force in December. A spokesperson for the supermarket told us: "Our first priority is always the safety of our customers. We only display these warnings on products when there is a risk of cross contamination."
Well, hurrah! The EU, saving us all. Right?

Oh. Wrong!
Will these potatoes contain peanuts? What about this fruit juice? Preposterous questions maybe, but Clare Hussein is still asking herself them after she noticed that Tesco changed its "may contain nuts" advice on a raft of unlikely items. She has a daughter, aged three, with multiple allergies.
"These products literally changed their allergy information overnight," she says. "When you attempt a weekly shop for your family and find that everything from baked beans to pizza, butternut squash and more is suddenly labelled as potentially unsafe, it leaves you with extremely limited options for feeding your family."
Hussein, from Portsmouth, has started a petition against the store's "blanket labelling" at Change.org/tesconuts. It already has more than 13,000 signatures.
Why not petition the EU, Clare? Tesco aren’t doing this off their own bat.
"People say: 'Shop somewhere else,'" she says, "but it's not as easy as that. I went into the greengrocer last week and they had nuts hanging in the doorway."
Oh, so you – like the EU bureaucrats – consider that ‘a risk of contamination’, then?

Surely that tells you that it’s not Tesco’s fault that they have to err on the side of caution..?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

It doesn't matter what Clare does to protect her gimp daughter from the Nazi Nuts of Death.

One day, she'll go outside her comfort zone - anywhere in the Far East, for example - and bingo!

I approve of blanket labelling of everything as being dangerous - it exposes the lunacy of the label warriors' rhetoric.

Anonymous said...

Stupid cow.

Tescos are covering their arse, who can blame them?

Noticed her second name...inbreeding?

The Blocked Dwarf said...

I always wonder if the decrease in parents smoking at home has led to the increase of allergies/asthma. Back when I was at school there was, it seemed, one kid in every class with asthma...now it seems that every other child has an ALLERGY, A S T H M A, ADHwtf or Arseburgers and that despite 5 a day and Jamie Oliver school dinners.

Maybe 5 B&H a day would do the little allergy-ridden mite a power of good?

ivan said...

The one question no one seems able to ask, 'why are there so many people allergic to everything today'. It would be much better to find the answer to that question and then do something about it rather than making blanket knee jerk reactions.

On second thoughts, people might not like the answer because it does not fit with their world nanny view.

John Tee said...

So .... last week she was happy to buy orange juice, this week she is not. Has the orange juice changed? Or just the label?

Anonymous said...

@TheBlockedDwarf - I'd become engorged were exposure to smoke showed signs of protecting against ailments. We won't see this for some tine, though, as my Nazi antismoking siblings were afforded the same lung hardening as I.

I deal with old people in my spare time. You seldom meet someone who has Alzheimers and smokes.

Anonymous said...

I am sure you're right, Anon. The US Army has records of this relationship and they confirm what you're saying, that smokers keep their wits!

Ancient + Tattered Airman said...

Well, it is from the Grauniad and it must be in their mission statement to worry as many of their brainwashed readers as they can!

Clarissa said...

I was, several years ago, incredulous when I first saw the 'may contain nuts' warning on a packet of sultanas and posted something about the stupidity of this on a previous blog - only to be taken to task by a commentator who though that even the slightest theoretical risk result of cross-contamination should result in a warning.

andy5759 said...

Leg Iron makes a good case for God liking a smoke. Sorry, don't know how to link.

JuliaM said...

"I approve of blanket labelling of everything as being dangerous - it exposes the lunacy of the label warriors' rhetoric."

Indeed!

"Noticed her second name...inbreeding?"

Heh! Hey, maybe that explains the uncontrollable rise in allergies?

"Maybe 5 B&H a day would do the little allergy-ridden mite a power of good? "

:D

"So .... last week she was happy to buy orange juice, this week she is not. Has the orange juice changed? Or just the label?"

Indeed!