I was shocked to find out last week that some varieties of Whittard tea contain undeclared nuts in the ingredients. The tea concerned is Rooibos Cream Caramel, Sticky Toffee Pudding and Spice Chai Green Tea – all 125g packs.
Tea is something I always consider as a safe drink; wherever I go I know that herbal tea and black tea or coffee are going to be safe for me. At least that’s what I thought. I don’t really like the sound of Sticky Toffee tea or Cream Caramel so would probably not have tried them, however I love green tea so I could well have tried the Spice Chai tea.
Nuts in Whittard teas
Whittard of Chelsea, as a responsible retailer, has issued a warning using The Anaphylaxis Campaign Allergy Information service so I got an email and a letter in the post notifying me of this problem.
I asked Whittard by email to let me know what types of nuts are in this tea, and how the tea got contaminated. I also asked why their other tea is not at risk from containing nuts. I haven’t heard back yet but if I do I’ll share any information here on my blog.
Macadamia nuts and almonds found in herbal tea
This confused me a bit; how can tea contain nuts? And which nuts are concerned here? I decided to see if I could find out a bit more. The Food Standards Agency website had a notice:
The notice concerns tree nuts: Rooibos Cream Caramel Flavoured Tea (macadamia nuts), Sticky Toffee Pudding Tea (macadamia nuts), and Spice Chai Green Tea (almonds).
It goes on to say: “Whittard of Chelsea has withdrawn the affected products. In addition, the company will also be contacting the relevant allergy support organisations, which will inform their at-risk members of the withdrawal. Notices will be displayed in all stores to alert consumers to the reasons for the withdrawal, and the actions they can take if they have purchased these products.”
Somehow these nuts seem to have found their way into the manufacturing process and apparently no other Whittard products are known to be affected. I also checked Whittard’s website and there are number of other teas that show a “May contain nuts” warning in the ingredients list. I spotted Pink Lemonade, Pink Grapefruit and Mulled wine, all with a nut warning. Most of Whittard’s tea does not contain a warning and is free from nuts.
Get allergy alerts to your phone
I also found a similar article on www.wired-gov.net – the UK’s No. 1 government and public sector news alerting service. The news is the same, but this website also mentioned a text service, which I had not heard of before. You just text START ALLERGY to 62372 for up to the minute allergy alerts straight to your mobile phone.
I am hoping to find out how and why nuts have found their way into Whittard tea and why some teas contain warnings on their website whilst others do not. If I find out anything interesting I will share it here. I’m off now to make myself a nice hot cup of tea: Whittard Spiced Apple. Mmmmmm. Safe tea drinking to you all.
I received a reply from Whittard Teas which has answered my questions as to why some of their teas show ‘may contain’ warnings on their website. You will see from their response that these warnings are unnecessary in some cases and they have now updated their website to reflect this. Thanks to Whittard for a speedy response, very helpful answers and the tea samples they offered me by way of thanks for spotting these errors on their website.
Response from Whittard:
Further to your email we have been conducting a review of the web site to ensure that the “nut allergen” information is correct.
We have indeed found some inaccuracies where product that has been noted as having a nut allergen do not contain nuts including the Instant Teas you mention: Pink lemonade, pink grapefruit and Mulled Wine. This has now all been checked and amended where appropriate.
The Rooibos Cream Caramel, Sticky toffee pudding are specialist teas that do contain a small percentage of macadamia nuts. The Spiced Chai Green Tea contains almonds .
The ingredients labels have been corrected on all these products as well as allergen warnings attached.
thank you for your information.
I have had a peanut and tree nut allergy all my life (I’m 91)
and although I have lived all over the world I have only had three or four very close calls!
Very close! I’m careful
found your site because I asked about the Downton Abby tea
Still no answer but after reading your blog I guess I won’t drink it today1
I’m not sure about about the Downton Abbey Tea, and what a shame they are not responding to you. Do be careful as some teas can contain allergens – hidden where we least expect them.