❓Often people ask me what they should do when they see a "𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯" label.⁣
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⁉️My first question to them is, how many variations of that wording have they seen?⁣
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✅In a study done many years ago, the researchers found over 20 different ways of writing an allergy warning in food.⁣
▶️They asked people how they would act, depending on what was written, and the variability was incredible.⁣
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𝐒𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰, 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐯𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞.⁣
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✅Several other studies went to see what was the actual variation of allergen concentration.⁣
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✳What did they find?⁣
➡️In products with a warning, 6.5 to 93% contained an allergen.⁣
➡️In products without a warning, 11 to 53% contained an allergen.⁣
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⚠️In reality, there is still a significant risk of a not labelled food, to contain a substantial amount of allergens.⁣
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❓But why is it that the food industry has this massive variability in warnings they use and still have so much potential cross-contamination of allergens?⁣
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❌The problem tracks back to political parties, the way they are funded or the individual politician's financial interest.⁣
❗What I am saying might be controversial, but let's look at what is known.⁣
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⚠️Most of you have never heard of the "𝘌𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘍𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘶𝘮".⁣
🔻This is the most powerful lobby within the 𝘌𝘜 – the 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐛𝐲.⁣
🔻They have offices inside the 𝘌𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 and manage to block all resolutions that can lead to improvement of food quality when this affects the profit the food industry has.⁣
🔻It is easy to see what they have done so far, as most are widely published. (the list is far too long for me to place it here).⁣
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⚠️In the 𝘜𝘚𝘈 alone, in the 2014 elections, the food industry donated $𝟏𝟕𝐌, in total, to both parties.⁣
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❇This comes to the 𝐏'𝐬 I have spoken about before.⁣
Those, also called 𝐄𝐃'𝐬 (𝘌𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘋𝘰𝘴𝘦), look into the dose needed to cause an allergic reaction and the percentage of allergic people who will react.⁣
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✅So a 𝐏𝟏 or 𝐄𝐃𝟏 means that the potential cross-contamination in a particular food will lead to 1% or fewer allergic people reacting to that food.⁣⁣⁣
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✴The best collaboration done so far is the one between the food industry in Australia, the Government and Allergy Organizations.⁣⁣⁣
(see the attached table to see the ED for the 14 main allergens)⁣⁣⁣
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⛔Such an agreement does not exist in the 𝘌𝘜 at present.⁣⁣⁣
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✴The hope for the 𝘜𝘒, at the moment, is that the so called "𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐚'𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐰" will lead to a change in this practice.⁣⁣⁣
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▶️But we need to go deeper than simple labelling, look into manufacturing practices, and avoid allergens altogether.⁣⁣
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A US study suggests that, though camps will accept 🧒 children with allergies, most are not prepared to act if something happens as often they don’t have or request individualized action plans.

🏕It seemed camps that had faced anaphylactic events in previous years were better trained and able to recognize it than others who didn’t.
Despite that, one-third of camp leaders did not think most staff would be able to act appropriately.

Though this study was not done in the UK, I would suggest👫 parents need to be aware of the possibility of the same happening in summer camps here or any other country where they might send their children to.

⚠️The main lessons to take from this study are:
🔹️Enquire if the staff at the summer camp is trained to deal with allergic conditions, mainly anaphylaxis.
🔹️See what policies and emergency measures they have in place, e.g. contacts for local ambulance service, GP or Hospital.
🔹️Provide action plans specifically for your child. If you don’t have one, ask your Paediatric Allergist to provide a BSACI action plan.
🔹️See if your child’s medication did not expire and take them to the camp, in a clearly marked container, potentially with a photo of your child outside it.
🔹️You don’t stand to lose anything by asking if the food your child is allergic to is excluded from the camp, and other children cannot bring it with them there.

🏫As more and more nurseries/schools are becoming nuts free, it would not be a bad idea for summer camps to follow suit.

(Many Summer Camps Unprepared for Allergic Campers - Medscape - Dec 10, 2019)

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