Muesli bar for me and a coffee

nuts!

I prefer nuts -but recently,the flights I've been on , they haven't given them out because someone has declared a nut allergy. How the hell do these people get on elsewhere ? ie other forms of public transport,pubs,concert halls etc

But allergies seem to be the reason airlines have switched to those tiny packs of pretzels instead if nuts. A colleague at work said her father had a snickers bar taken off because of a potential risk - I think someone is taking it a little but far.

Only a little bit to far?

brewerdave wrote:

I prefer nuts -but recently,the flights I've been on , they haven't given them out because someone has declared a nut allergy. How the hell do these people get on elsewhere ? ie other forms of public transport,pubs,concert halls etc

The problem with aircraft snacks is that the hands of the cabin crew can become contaminated by nut traces when clearing up after other passengers and the contamination can be passed on to food then passed to the person with the nut allergy. Plus having to deal with someone who has gone into anaphylactic shock at 35,000 feet is a very different proposition to it happening in a pub or somewhere similar where specialist treatment is going to be close to hand. Whether this is an example of airlines being overcautious or not I wouldn't like to say - it's one I'm on the fence about because I know of two families each with a child who has had a serious nut allergy since birth and no matter how careful they are both have had numerous hospital admissions because of this. Both carry epipens which deal with the immediate crisis of going into anaphylactic shock but it does often depend on other people present both realising what has happened and how to use it. By the time it happens, the person themselves is often at most only able to tell someone where to find it before the seizure takes hold. Personally I think that on balance I would prefer to eat pretzels than watch someone die on a flight.

SM

AH that kind of nibble - was wondering......!!!

A prime example of what can happen with peanuts on a plane.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/11036175/Ryanair-bans-passenger-after-girl-suffers-nut-allergy-reaction.html

How awful, I would like to think he maybe didn't understand rather than he was being a complete Pig and ignoring the request. What an awful and severe reaction poor girl.

Mmmmmm, a two year ban from flying Ryanair Is that really a punishment ?

Its alright giving out warnings via the PA system on a plane but what if someone is hard of hearing/deaf or simply didn't understand the warning?

On some of the flights I've been on,the PA system is all but indecipherable anyway -plus there will be people with noise cancelling headphones listening to music etc -sees to be a bit extreme to ban someone -unless they have evidence that he did it deliberately ??

I didn't think nuts had been served on planes for years. If I buy a snack it's probably going to be Pringles

Feebee1 wrote:

I didn't think nuts had been served on planes for years. If I buy a snack it's probably going to be Pringles

~16 months ago, they were still "available" ; the holiday flight we were on, they made an announcement that they wouldn't be serving nuts as someone had declared a nut allergy.
Leading on from this, how do the airlines get on with meals supplied at the overseas airport? Do they have a robust enough Quality system to ensure the absence of nuts in meals prepared in places like Mauritius,Costa Rica, Cuba etc??

Some airlines don't use local suppliers for their return flight service but load both outbound and inbound meals from UK suppliers. Hence why sometimes you end up with a lukewarm meal because it hasn't defrosted properly before it is reheated. And why people with peanut allergies are frequently told that it will not be possible to supply them with a guaranteed nut free meal as per BA's policy:

http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/food-and-drink/food-allergies

Talking about 'nut allergy' is something of a misnomer because the problem lies with peanuts which aren't actually nuts and generally speaking proper nuts (or 'tree nuts' as BA calls them) pose no risk at all. The thing that most parents of a child with an allergy to peanuts worry about most is the use of peanut oil in the cooking process - you would be surprised at the number of products that appear to be peanut free but aren't because peanut oil has been used in the preparation of the food.

SM

Talking about 'nut allergy' is something of a misnomer because the problem lies with peanuts which aren't actually nuts and generally speaking proper nuts (or 'tree nuts' as BA calls them) pose no risk at all

Not true

Some people react only to one type of nut, for example peanut. Others are known to react to different types of nuts. Even though peanut and tree nuts may look and taste similar, the proteins present in peanuts are scientifically very different to those in tree nuts. That means that one can be allergic to peanut only, a tree nut only, several tree nuts or any combination of peanut and a few tree nuts. Studies have shown that children allergic to peanut are more at risk of other food allergies, including to tree nuts.

http://www.allergyuk.org/peanut-and-tree-nut-allergy/peanut-and-tree-nut-allergy
There was another article in the Daily Wail a few days later from the incident that Kiltman posted - where a child had eaten a cashew nut on a transatlantic flight and she had a reaction, and the mother was demanding a nut free return flight.
The American Airline quite rightly said that they cannot guarantee that will happen and no airline can guarantee that either.

The mother said that this was the first time the child had eaten a cashew nut, but what most people don't realise is that a reaction occurs on the second exposure ...the first is either in the womb or through breast feeding where the immune system gets prepared to fight and it doesn't show any symptoms...... A few years ago the government advised pregnant and breast feeding mothers to avoid all nuts, they have now revised that advice and state that there is no reason why pregnant women cannot eat peanuts/nuts, as long as they themselves are not allergic to them.

So basically the situation is, that any baby/child on a flight could have an allergic reaction to peanuts. if it's the 'first time' outside the womb that they are exposed to them, whilst in an aluminium tube with recycled air and over 100+ people opening bags of peanuts to munch away.....

I don't eat nuts myself these days because of a medical problem, but I remember the days of small packets of salted peanuts being handed out by the cabin crew....all they did was make you thirsty, so you ordered another drink the next time the trolley dollies came down the aisle.

Can people 'live' without peanuts/nuts for a few hours? Of course they can.!

Can the airlines guarantee a nut free flight? Nope and they never will be able too either, unless no food is allowed on planes and all food served in airports is 'nut free', and planes are steam cleaned throughout after each trip.

Personally, if I had a child with a known nut allergy, then I'd take responsibility of the situation and I wouldn't place my child in potential danger or expect the world to change around me......I wouldn't fly, end of.....no ifs or buts......I'd travel by car, by boat, charter a jet, whatever.

Sanji x

Sanji,

As usual a well balanced post. I was interested by

Personally, if I had a child with a known nut allergy, then I'd take responsibility of the situation and I wouldn't place my child in potential danger or expect the world to change around me......I wouldn't fly, end of.....no ifs or buts......I'd travel by car, by boat, charter a jet, whatever.

What really worries me is that the parents did not use (or seem to know how to use) the EpiPen.

I feel dreadfully sorry for the poor girl. Much less so for the parents.

I have had a severe allergy from birth which, at times, has caused, firstly, my lips to tingle, secondly my tongue to swell and finally my throat to seem to constrict to the point that I can no longer breathe. Many years ago I passed out completely (obviously, I recovered - sadly, some may say).

I would never expect a whole aircraft (or room, or restaurant) to make allowances for my problem. My problem is my problem - not the whole world's.

If the girl's allergy were known about and severe (severe enough to carry an EpiPen), I am surprised that a flight for a holiday in the Canaries was judged to be suitable. Did the parent's ensure that nuts and nut debris was cleared from every bar, dining area, car, bus etc., in which they traveled. In Spain, I think not - Indeed, not on a day trip to Bognor Regis.

Indeed with such a reaction, perhaps a allergy filtration mask whilst traveling, may have been the answer.

Please don't get me wrong. I have a lot of sympathy. I think that people can do without various items for far longer than a flight to the Canaries. Indeed, I would not have eaten nuts, had I heard the announcement.

But; , I certainly wouldn't necessarily hear what was, apparently, such an important announcement - garbled aircraft intercom, or listening to music, or just noise cancelling headphones immediately come to mind.

The world and life in general is full of hazards. It is up to individuals (or their guardians) to protect themselves. Perhaps the eating of nuts should be banned wordwide?

I await the flak

By the way, I hate Pretzels......

Peter