There is always a lot of publicity when somebody is badly affected by, or dies from an allergic reaction to something, and in particular a foodstuff.
In the 'Only Connect' topic the spice Cardamom (or Cardamon) has recently been referred to with variation in the spelling of it. Out of interest I decided to look at what spelling is used on the products sold in our supermarkets and randomly chose ASDA to look on their website.
You may wonder what this has to do with allergies, but if you read on you'll find out.
On the ASDA website I noticed all the Cardamom products are sold with the word ending in 'm'. However, out of interest I also put in a search for 'Cardamon' and it brought up just one product, but that was because of an obvious error by whoever input the detail for the website, as a closer look at the item shows the packaged product is actually spelt 'Cardamom'.
Still puzzled as to why I have called this topic 'Allergies'?
Well, if you look at the image below from the ASDA website, it includes the following declaration which I just happened to notice:
This means that the product you are buying may contain (or be 'contaminated' by) up to NINE or more other ingredients that some, or even many people may be allergic to.Allergy Advice
May Contain: Celery, Cereals Containing Gluten, Milk, Mustard, Nuts, Peanuts, Sesame, Soya, Wheat.
Packed in a factory that handles Peanuts, Sesame Seeds, Wheat, Gluten, Milk products, Celery, Mustard, Soya and Other Nuts.
Surely it should not be possible for such things to happen these days, where possible cross-contamination of so many other ingredients into a one-ingredient product could possibly occur.
As long ago as the early 1980s when I worked in purchasing in the food industry, one of the materials I was responsible for buying was meat - beef, pork and chicken, which was used in various frozen products such as burgers, pies, etc. It so happens that we also supplied products to certain retail sources which had to be produced under strict 'halal regulations' using meat supplied by an approved halal abattoir. Whilst this has nothing to do with allergic reactions, but with religious beliefs, all equipment used in our factory had to be thoroughly cleaned to a given specified procedure to ensure that the halal-produced products were not 'contaminated' by non-halal materials previously used on that production line.
If our products had been 'contaminated' with non-halal meat, or other ingredients that didn't meet the halal requirements, they wouldn't have harmed anybody physically. So if such strict procedures can be followed for religious reasons, why can't they also be followed for reasons that could possibly lead to somebody losing their life?
It just doesn't make sense to me how packing companies can be allowed to get away with packing things like this cardamon product which then puts all the onus on the person buying the product to check all the small print on the packaging.
I'm not criticising the supermarket ASDA as it is not their own brand, however, I'm thankful I don't have any allergies.