Even by the standards of over-zealous health and safety officials, this sounds a little nutty.
Jars of peanut butter have been pulled from supermarket shelves – because the nut allergy warning on the label isn’t in English.
The Whole Earth product, made by Dutch firm Kallo Foods, is called 3 Nut Butter and the front label makes plain it contains walnuts and pecans as well as peanuts.
But thousands of the £2.50 (R45) jars, available in Tesco and elsewhere, are being recalled because they breach rules which say there has to be an allergy warning in English on the jar.
The back label is in Dutch – although the words ‘pecan’ and ‘walnoot’ are clearly visible. An ‘allergy alert’ issued by Kent County Council has prompted disbelief on social media.
One critic wrote: ‘If anyone eats this and doesn’t realise it has nuts then I’m afraid it’s called natural selection.’ Another said: ‘The people who need these instructions are the reason we have “do not drink” on bleach bottles.’
A third commented: ‘It says “peanut, pecan & walnut” on the label and it’s 3 Nut Butter. I don’t know how much more “THERE’S NUTS IN THIS NUT PRODUCT” they can be.’ But one shopper who has a pistachio allergy wrote: ‘I can understand this one to be fair. It does say it contains other nuts that aren’t listed, so I wouldn’t eat it, just to be on the safe side.’
Kallo Foods, which took the decision to withdraw the jars from sale, said: ‘It contains peanuts, pecan nuts and walnuts and may contain traces of other nuts which are not written in English on the back label.
‘This means the product is a possible health risk for anyone with an allergy to peanuts and/or pecan nuts and/or walnuts and other nuts.’
Kent council’s warning advises anyone with a nut allergy to return it to the store for a refund.
© Daily Mail