Safe shopping

Hi.
Thank you so much for being interested enough to ask these questions. Yes, I would find your store a nightmare to shop in due to the high probability of contact exposure to peanut protein. I do agree with you about the sense of false security that the shelf tags would provide. I would not worry about reading labels so much as touching anything in the store. My child has not reacted to airborne proteins yet but has had an anyaphylaxis to touching PB residue. We would not wear a mask and gloves but would probably just avoid this store. Thank you for trying to make it better for those of us who must live with this allergy.

I would ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT if products/shelves were labeled to alert consumers of peanuts/treenuts. I cannot describe the sick feeling I get when I pick up a product to read the ingredients and realize it contains nuts.

As far as the open bins of peanuts and peanut butter making machine, if I knew a store had this, I would completely avoid the store. I can barely stand to look at [b]packaged[/b] peanut products! Open ones would probably cause an anxiety attack. I am sure many customers with peanut allergies (and those with children w/ peanuts allergies like myself) avoid this store. It's not worth the risk.

I would wear gloves in [b]any[/b] store (this would be great -although if the gloves contained latex, I know that would be a problem with people with latex allergies, so latex free would be better), but I would not wear a mask. I wouldn't go anywhere that a mask would be needed.

Is it neccessary to have the open bins? Also, most people probably wouldn't care too much if they couldn't make their own peanut butter. Even before my children's allergies, I would not have done this.

Thanks for caring so much! The world needs more people like you!

It is very nice of you to try to be so accommodating. I do not have a peanut allergy but my child does. I actually avoid stores with open bins of peanuts and certainly would avoid a store where peanuts are ground. That sounds far too risky too me--why tempt fate?

The shelf tags are a nice idea if there is no need to touch them and the food packages stay very orderly.

On the other hand, even though my son has a peanut allergy, I am not sure how far a store should have to go to accommodate a customer. Maybe offering gloves is actually better because then (theoretically) a person could pick up and examine anything they want. Since your store does not specifically specialize in food allergies, it seems an awful lot to ask for every item containing peanuts to have a shelf tag indicating that. That is what the food labels are for.

We used gloves on Halloween to avoid getting peanut residue on my son's hands and it worked perfectly. No problems. It's really not a huge inconvenience. We have not used a mask. If I felt the risk somewhere were that great, I would not visit that location. With the open peanut bins and grinder, the protein may be in the air and on the packages...

My vote is for offering the gloves and mask, and not doing the shelf tags. Thank you for being so considerate--it is rare.

Jennifer B
[url="http://www.foodallergybuzz.com"]Food Allergy Buzz[/url]

food labeling changes quite often , with no or little warning.

it would be a continual task to check and re-check that the shelf labels are in date with current package label.
I certainly wouldnt want customers to rely solely on your shelf tags.

That said , as a parent of a allergic child I wouldnt go in to your store. But then as I am posting from UK , and only have spent 3 1/2 weeks in USA once, I can safely say we avoided you!!

ooh the cross contamination,...........so not worth it.

On a serious note, its worth remembering that peanut/nuts are not the only allergy.
So if you are going to cater for the nut allergic, you may be asked to consider aiding the egg, and milk , wheat etc.

What I suggest is that you moniter the difficulty allergic customers have with food shopping.
write a shopping list for some normal every day basic foods.
and look for the ones that are nut and egg free.

It should give you a very good flavour of our normal life.

Please make sure you have plenty of time for the task as a study showed that on adverage, an allergic consumer food shopping takes 3/4 of an hour longer than others to shop.

This alone should help you if you need to support an allergic customer.

My kids have other allergies, but the nut ones are so very dangerous. I wouldn't feel the need to label shelves for EVERY allergy.

My child has a peanut allergy. I don't think I would be comfortable allowing him to visit your co-op. Given that peanut products are open, processed and touched by customers that are untrained in food handling (thus leading to cross contamination issues all over the store). I think the safest thing you could do for peanut allergic customers would be to alert all shoppers with a warning sign outside of your co-op before they enter about the risks within the store. My child is young and I wouldn't ask him to wear gloves and a mask, this would scare him and I don't think he would like looking different. The tags sound like a great idea however as someone mentioned previously, it would be necessary to keep updated and accurate information on all product labels before they are shelved and ensure restocking of items are accurate (as customers may put items back in the wrong place). I think it is great that you are concerned about allergy safety! Thank you!
Krista
[url="http://www.peanutallergywebsite.com"]http://www.peanutallergywebsite.com[/url]

nuts arent the only really dangerous allergy.
and allergies dont come in ones, most have egg and peanut allergies, .....................admit my son is one of the few with a pretty long list.
most of which has the potential to kill.

We all need to have safe labels if we have an allergy.

Krista, I agree with you--I would not set foot in a store that has open bins of peanuts and a peanut grinder. I can't imagine why anyone with a peanut allergy would! It does not seem worth it. I just am not sure how far stores should have to go to accommodate.

BTW, nice website!

I agree with the majority of posters that you are to be admired for trying to be so accomodating.

I do not think you need to go overboard to accomodate. There are some places that allergic people can not go and I would say your store might be one of them.

As someone with horrible pet dander allergies, I do not expect a pet store to accomodate me. I know that if I go into a pet store, I very well could have an asthma attack and that is my responsibility.

I'm sure the peanut allergy sufferer would like to shop at your store, but there must be another option.

In my opinion, it would just be common sense to avoid your store.

***I like what one poster said about putting a sign up stating that there are open peanuts in the store.

Originally Posted By: williamsmummynuts arent the only really dangerous allergy.
and allergies dont come in ones, most have egg and peanut allergies, .....................admit my son is one of the few with a pretty long list.
most of which has the potential to kill.

We all need to have safe labels if we have an allergy.

Williamsmummy, I in no way meant that nuts were the only dangerous allergy. I'm sorry if I upset you. My children are allergic to other things as well, but I do not get terrified, for example, when I see an egg in the store. Peanuts are the things that freak me out... probably b/c of the dust?? I completely agree that ALL things need to be safely labeled for everyone. I, personally, would just liked to be warned before picking up a nut product.

Then I read statistics like the one below:

Peanut allergies pose the most common risk of death among all food allergies.

Peanuts are the leading cause of severe allergic reactions, followed by shellfish, fish, tree nuts and eggs.

That's why I hate peanuts so much! I hate the rest too!

I am not upset ( am smiling right now, esp as my son has passed a food challenge yesterday!!)
just thought that if this store was going to bother with nut warnings , they might as well go the whole hog thingy and do all other allergies.

With stores like this , why dont they moniter the people who DONT walk in to the store because of the nut/food allergy?
how many customers are they missing out on?
In this short of cash time we are going through they will need to be more competitive.

shellfish/fish is another easily airbourne allergy, my uncle cant walk past a fish counter without a nasty asthma attack, and once had a full blown reaction that the hospital thought was a stroke.
He walks around without an epi pen............which is a bit scary IMO.

my son has pretty severe dog allergies, and this is a problem, mainly social areas, other peoples cars etc, and this allergy is on his 'potential to kill' list.
certainly in the 'right'circumstances.
Thankfully you dont get many dogs in supermarkets.

peanut allergy is pretty common, but only in some countries, not that well heard of in france for instance. They have problems with celery and celeriac and mustard.
japan being an island, has fish and rice allergies, but the UK , canada and USA have these peanut allergies....................and a higher rate of allergic disease as a whole.
were are we going wrong?

Hello again

We

Williamsmummy, what challenge did your som pass? COngratulations!!!

You're right, depending on the person, any allergy could cause anapylaxis. I think the manager should allow customers that actually shop at that location the tell which food(s) cause anaphylaxis from contact for them and they should label those.

SHellfish is terrible one as well. Why doesn't your uncle carry an epi-pen?!