Is This Product Warning Necessary?

Here at Cannon Logistics, we wouldn’t usually post a story like this, but we do have to ask just how excessive certain product warning labels need to be.

Now, as we all know, peanut allergies can be a very serious thing. Depending on the severity of an individual’s allergy to peanuts, it can lead to reactions such as anaphylactic shock, which in itself can kill.

That’s why when products that aren’t explicitly a nut product but may contain traces of peanuts (or other nuts), the product must have a warning label included that warns of this potential ingredient. (This is usually written as: “Warning: May contain traces of nuts.”) 

However, you have to wonder just whether or not the warning label is necessary for a product where it is already clear that the product will contain nuts. In the UK, a product known as Whole Hearted Roasted Monkey Nuts was removed from the store shelves of British supermarket chain Booths.

Why? Because the product in question contains peanuts but no warning label was included on the packaging. While that may seem fair enough, the only issue is that the product in question is literally a bag of peanuts. 

While we understand the supermarket chain taking its role of notifying customers of potential allergens seriously, certainly you can draw a line when the product itself is peanuts. If someone is incapable of realising they’re buying a product that may contain traces of nuts in it when what they’re buying is an actual bag full of hundreds of peanuts, then would a warning label really help?

To a certain degree, what gets us more is that Booths then went on to say that if anyone with a notable peanut allergy happened to buy these clearly marked bag of peanuts, that they could return them to the store for a refund.

We perfectly understand why allergen warnings are necessary for products where the inclusion of peanuts or other nuts may not be 100% clear or even guaranteed, but a warning that a bag of peanuts may contain peanuts seems a little unnecessary. 

People deserve credit, especially those with peanut allergies. They’d be the first ones to know where the peanuts are displayed in their local store, and they’d be the ones to steer clear of them all the time. They know what peanuts are and we’re sure they can read perfectly fine. This decision simply seems ridiculous.

We’d love to hear what you think. Were Booths right to remove the product from their stores or were they simply overreacting? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

* Image source: Dan4th