Nestle Canada Inc. announces five products will no longer be safe,Kit Kat, Aero, ...

Here is a copy of the e-mail I just sent to Nestle. Redtruck, I truly believe you should post your e-mail also and I believe Katiee should be urged to post her whole article she wrote to-day regarding this situation.
Here goes:-
I am a 42 yr old woman. I cannot tell you what joy I had, as a child, eating Smarties. We all knew how to make fake lipstick with the red Smarties. We would line the Smarties up according to colour. We all had our favourite colours. When you eat your Smarties do you eat the red ones last? Do you suck them very slowly or crunch them very fast? Eat their candy coated chocolate and please tell me when I ask, when you eat your Smarties do you eat the red ones last? How many Canadian children actually did eat the red ones last? Through the years, I grew to love Coffee Crisp, in particular and Aero bars. Very rarely did I feel the need to have a chocolate bar that had peanuts in it. I am now the Mother of a 5 year old son with a deadly allergy to peanuts. How thrilled I was to learn that Nestle's line of chocolate was "safe" for him to consume. My son could enjoy Smarties as I had when I was a child! I am a member of [url="http://www.peanutallergy.com"]www.peanutallergy.com[/url] We found out that our American friends didn't even know what Smarties were. Plain M & M's are unsafe in the U.S. (and Canada) for peanut allergic individuals to consume. I started the co-ordination of a Canadian family sending Smarties to our American friends so their children could enjoy a good "safe" treat that we had long taken for granted. I just finished mailing a large quantity to a friend in California who was happy to share them with another peanut allergic child. Your economic decision to not maintain your peanut free facility, I think you will find, is not based in true statistics. You maintain that only 1.5% of the Canadian population is affected by a peanut/nut allergy. I beg to differ. Yes, my son is one of the 1.5%. However, because he is deathly allergic and has almost died because of his allergy, our whole family of four cannot consume any products that "may contain". Extended family and friends do not buy these products either. My son is in a "peanut free" classroom at school and the only chocolate that is currently allowed into his classroom is Nestles. That affects 40+ children and the treat they either choose to bring in their lunch or the treats they receive as a group at special occasion parties. I also understand that the decision was based on a survey or study that concluded that most people want to see peanuts/nuts in their chocolate bars. I'm sorry, do they not have enough chocolate bars to choose from already? I have been quite comfortable accepting that Smarties are not "safe" at special occasion time for my son. I have been quite comfortable accepting that Smarties ice cream is not "safe" for my son. However, your decision to-day, I cannot merely sit back and accept. Solely as a parent of a peanut allergic individual I am able to contact many people and ask them to voice their concerns to Nestle and even go so far as to boycott Nestle products. However, as a member of [url="http://www.peanutallergy.com,"]www.peanutallergy.com,[/url] we have an international voice with which to voice our outrage, our deep sense of betrayal, and our feelings that yet another company has completed negated either ourselves or our children. This is something I do not understand when the peanut/nut allergic population is actually growing. I would suggest that no one at Nestle who made this decision even knows remotely a person that is peanut/nut allergic. Have you ever shopped reading every label over and over again and finding that most products you go to buy are "unsafe"?
Have you had to contact manufacturers on a weekly basis to see if their foods are, in fact, "safe" for your child to consume? What will our children be denied now? Smarties. I am angry because I know the joy that Smarties brought me as a child. I am angry because only yesterday when I was in the grocery store with my peanut allergic son, we were going through the chocolate bars and identifying which ones were "safe" and not "safe". Most were not "safe", but my soul, YESTERDAY, he could point out that Nestle chocolate bars and Smarties were "safe". He will no longer be able to do this. His response to me to-day was that when he grows up he is going to make Smarties that are "peanut free". What a brave little soul. I understand that the plant in question is antiquated and could not withstand renovations to separate peanut products from the rest of the facility so that these products could still remain "safe". But why? I'm sorry, but I do not agree that it is consumers wanting MORE peanut products in their chocolate bars. I do not believe that it is not economically viable for you to keep this facility peanut free. I suspect that there is something much larger in this picture that the public is not being made aware of. To top it off, The Anaphylaxis Network of Canada has been working with you for months, asking you for a reversal of your decision. My only wish is that they had come to us, the parents of peanut allergic children, to peanut allergic people, and we would have banded together with them when the decision was first in it's making. How can you ignore what this well respected organization has to say? How can you even ignore an evening newscast I watched this evening where the reporter thought that it was truly sad that a treat such as a chocolate bar, or our beloved Smarties are something that peanut/nut allergic children will NEVER be able to enjoy. I am begging you to re-consider this decision, not simply for my son (as he probably will make "peanut free" Smarties one day), but for all peanut allergic individuals and their families, friends, teammates, and class and school mates. If you do not re-consider your decision, I would be very interested in seeing your sales report for the year ending 2002 to see how adding the "may contain" warning to these wonderful products has actually benefited your sales.
May I suggest that it won't and that you may actually find yourself at a loss.
I would ask you again to re-consider your decision and thank you for your time and consideration.
I did do this directly from the website link provided above, and if I do receive a response, I will post it also.
Best wishes! [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]
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