Girl Dies From Allergic Reaction to Sesame Seeds

Girl Dies From Allergic Reaction to Sesame Seeds

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Discussion

Sheepshanks

32,806 posts

120 months

Sunday 7th October 2018
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
It’s the other way around. The sesame death was a couple of years ago, it’s currently in the news because of the inquest. There was also another sesame one in the same sort of time frame.

The dairy allergy death was Dec 17 - the inquest hasn’t happened yet, but there was quite a kerfuffle about recalling the product that was contaminated.

anonymous-user

55 months

Sunday 7th October 2018
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TooMany2cvs said:
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Bought-in yoghurt, from the brand who issued this recall earlier this year...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43143993

Can't really blame Pret for that one.
No, no, nothing to do with Pret. No responsibility there for Pret to know what’s in their ingredients. rolleyes


TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

127 months

Sunday 7th October 2018
quotequote all
REALIST123 said:
No, no, nothing to do with Pret. No responsibility there for Pret to know what’s in their ingredients. rolleyes
Pret bought from a supplier who promised faithfully their coconut yoghurt was dairy-free.
That supplier used ingredients from a supplier who promised faithfully those ingredients were dairy-free. They weren't. A recall was issued shortly afterwards.

How far up the supply chain should everybody be tracing?

Kccv23highliftcam

1,783 posts

76 months

Sunday 7th October 2018
quotequote all
REALIST123 said:
TooMany2cvs said:
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Bought-in yoghurt, from the brand who issued this recall earlier this year...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43143993

Can't really blame Pret for that one.
No, no, nothing to do with Pret. No responsibility there for Pret to know what’s in their ingredients. rolleyes
They did. They were supplied with a product that did not satisfy specification due to a suppliers error.
A fatal error as it turns out.

4x4Tyke

6,506 posts

133 months

Sunday 7th October 2018
quotequote all
I find the idea of "dairy free yogurt" to be absurd, it clearly isn't yogurt, it's like meat free sausages or burgers, misrepresentation.

TooMany2cvs said:
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Bought-in yoghurt, from the brand who issued this recall earlier this year...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43143993

Can't really blame Pret for that one.
I think that is open to debate, they could test each batch to ensure it complies with their own assertion that something is free of X. In general contract law, it is the retailer that bears responsibility for their claims when selling to a consumer.


Halb

53,012 posts

184 months

Sunday 7th October 2018
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chunder27 said:
I do feel the Louis CK line about; of course, but maybe applies here, harsh though it might be.

Of course we should protect people who have nut allergies, segregate their food, highlight in packaging.

But maybe, the fact that every time you touch a nut you die means we lose nut allergies altogether in a few generations!

Sorry, I know it's horrible but I think ti all the time I hear about this!!
if that was the case then they should have gone a while ago, instead of increasing.

rscott

14,771 posts

192 months

Sunday 7th October 2018
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Just back from a few days in Switzerland and amazed at the difference in food labelling..

Not a single restaurant menu mentioned anything about allergens.

The only warning was on one of the Lake Geneva paddle steamers - that had a sticker near the entrance warning that nuts and other allergens are served on board. Interestingly that was in English, then French, then German.
Most other signage was in French & German only. If it had any English, that was last...

Murph7355

37,760 posts

257 months

Sunday 7th October 2018
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TooMany2cvs said:
Murph7355 said:
(Though my kids would have to be physically forced to eat anything more than cheese sandwiches, hummus or chocolate buns at present so they're pretty safe).
Hummus - definitely contains tahini, sesame seed paste.
Chocolate buns - high chance of containing nuts of one form or another.
Indeed they do.

Darwin would very much have taken its toll on my two (one of whom now knows he is not allergic to titanium rods in his arm! I now know why parents have more grey hairs than non-parents! Little feckers).

Teddy Lop

8,301 posts

68 months

Sunday 7th October 2018
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4x4Tyke said:
I find the idea of "dairy free yogurt" to be absurd, it clearly isn't yogurt, it's like meat free sausages or burgers, misrepresentation.
I imagine that people with an intolerance to dairy products but fancy something yoghurt-like find the descriptor quite useful.

I'm surprised by the casualness of some of the cases here, my mrs is coeliac and even though not the most severe - she gets away with traces and the worst that would happen after investing a quantity of gluten is her being ill for a few days - we are quite fussy about what and where we eat, and avoid making assumptions. There's a lot of pitfalls, from flour/wheat "batter" on chips to use as a thickener/padding in sauces, soups and processed meat products.

Halb

53,012 posts

184 months

Sunday 7th October 2018
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Teddy Lop said:
I imagine that people with an intolerance to dairy products but fancy something yoghurt-like find the descriptor quite useful.
indeed, very useful and sensible. And very tasty. biggrin

miniman

24,995 posts

263 months

Sunday 7th October 2018
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4x4Tyke said:
I find the idea of "dairy free yogurt" to be absurd, it clearly isn't yogurt, it's like meat free sausages or burgers, misrepresentation.
Couldn’t agree more. At work we occasionally have vegan cheese on the menu - it’s not cheese is it?!

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

127 months

Sunday 7th October 2018
quotequote all
miniman said:
4x4Tyke said:
I find the idea of "dairy free yogurt" to be absurd, it clearly isn't yogurt, it's like meat free sausages or burgers, misrepresentation.
Couldn’t agree more. At work we occasionally have vegan cheese on the menu - it’s not cheese is it?!
I can understand why people go for these substitute products - but when so many of the arguments for veggie/vegan diets are based on eating more naturally and healthily, I cannot understand how they square that with these utterly artificial and over-processed products.

4x4Tyke

6,506 posts

133 months

Sunday 7th October 2018
quotequote all
miniman said:
4x4Tyke said:
I find the idea of "dairy free yogurt" to be absurd, it clearly isn't yogurt, it's like meat free sausages or burgers, misrepresentation.
Couldn’t agree more. At work we occasionally have vegan cheese on the menu - it’s not cheese is it?!
I'd never even heard of that, at first I wondered if you meant cheese made with non animal rennet, until I just googled it.

I don't see why neologisms aren't used for these products, surely it would help avoid confusion and be a benefit to everybody allowing allergens and intolerances to be more easily avoided.

The Mad Monk

Original Poster:

10,474 posts

118 months

Sunday 7th October 2018
quotequote all
Returning to the original question.

Why are so many people nowadays allergic to so many different foodstuffs?

They never used to be allergic. No, they didn't all die at an early age.

Kids and adults could eat various food products without ill effects.

Why?

Teddy Lop

8,301 posts

68 months

Sunday 7th October 2018
quotequote all
The Mad Monk said:
Returning to the original question.

Why are so many people nowadays allergic to so many different foodstuffs?

They never used to be allergic. No, they didn't all die at an early age.

Kids and adults could eat various food products without ill effects.

Why?
are allergies increasing or is it the information and understanding of them?

E.g. My mrs is coeliac, but ate bread etc until mid 20s, it actually developed and got progressively worse as she got older. In times of old they probably would have just shrugged and she'd eventually have succumbed to it without anyone ever really knowing why, or wrong conclusings being recorded by ignorant physicians.


Thinking about it, my mother had a brother who died as an early teenager, and there's no real explanation why, he had bronchitis and was very weak, tired quickly even walking. Wouldn't suprise me at all if he'd had an allergy of some kind that caused it, one that today we'd be able to diagnose and treat.

Edited by Teddy Lop on Sunday 7th October 14:47

WatchfulEye

500 posts

129 months

Sunday 7th October 2018
quotequote all
The Mad Monk said:
Returning to the original question.

Why are so many people nowadays allergic to so many different foodstuffs?

They never used to be allergic. No, they didn't all die at an early age.

Kids and adults could eat various food products without ill effects.

Why?
It's not known for certain. However, the most important hypothesis is the "hygiene hypothesis": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis

The idea is that because during early childhood the immune system learns its environment as it matures. These days there are fewer bacteria, parasites, etc. and that lack of these leads to the immune system learning in an abnormal way and not developing the proper controls. This same explanation has been proposed not just for allergies, but also auto-immune diseases (like Crohn's disease, type 1 diabetes, etc.)

There are a variety of variants of the hygiene hypothesis: the classic one that it is lack of infections; a more recent one called "old friends" which points more at "friendly bacteria" and "acceptable parasites"; and a variety of others.

Halb

53,012 posts

184 months

Sunday 7th October 2018
quotequote all
Teddy Lop said:
are allergies increasing or is it the information and understanding of them?
E.g. My mrs is coeliac, but ate bread etc until mid 20s, it actually developed and got progressively worse as she got older. In times of old they probably would have just shrugged and she'd eventually have succumbed to it without anyone ever really knowing why, or wrong conclusings being recorded by ignorant physicians.
Thinking about it, my mother had a brother who died as an early teenager, and there's no real explanation why, he had bronchitis and was very weak, tired quickly even walking. Wouldn't suprise me at all if he'd had an allergy of some kind that caused it, one that today we'd be able to diagnose and treat.
Edited by Teddy Lop on Sunday 7th October 14:47
I think our understanding is increasing, especially of the gut biome. I also think alongside that, the introduction of plastics into our world has probably had an effect too.

BenjiS

3,818 posts

92 months

Sunday 7th October 2018
quotequote all
TooMany2cvs said:
Murph7355 said:
(Though my kids would have to be physically forced to eat anything more than cheese sandwiches, hummus or chocolate buns at present so they're pretty safe).
Hummus - definitely contains tahini, sesame seed paste.
Chocolate buns - high chance of containing nuts of one form or another.
Yep. That diet would kill my son. Hummus is made from chickpeas, a legume. He’s allergic to those.

He’s also allergic to eggs so that rules out the vast majority of cakes and baked goods.

He manages fine with cheese sarnies though, and loves having an excuse for not eating his peas :-)

ukaskew

10,642 posts

222 months

Monday 8th October 2018
quotequote all
A colleague of mine had a severe reaction at 39 years old, which turned out to be a sesame allergy. She now carries an epi-pen. That's one thing I don't understand and doesn't appear to be covered by many of the comments here, how does it develop in adulthood?

The chances of her never coming into contact with sesame in the previous 38 years is zero, so she can't have just lucked out for that long.

alfaman

6,416 posts

235 months

Monday 8th October 2018
quotequote all
Some allergies can be latent and appear later in life.

I’m allergic to dust mites .... suddenly became asthmatic at 18 years old ... no prior history.

Apparently stress / Life changes can be a trigger.

( in my case was when I went to boarding school for A levels .... high exposure may have had an impact)