I read recently the tragic news of the death of an 11 year old boy who ate a chocolate bar from Morrison that contained dairy. He tragically had an anaphylactic attack and died.
Read more here in Boy dies after eating chocolate containing dairy.
His father had bought the chocolate from the Free From range at Morrison’s and thought it was dairy free. It was in fact from the gluten free range, a tragedy he will have to live with for the rest of his life. You might say he should have checked, but you might also assume that most chocolate is gluten free anyway. Why does chocolate need gluten in it?
He assumed it was the chocolate bar he normally bought, which was dairy free and he didn’t double check.
I would urge all parents of allergic kids to encourage them to check also. I’m not saying it’s ever the child’s responsibility but they are very capable of taking some control, and might have spotted the allergen. Who knows, we can’t really speculate. We can’t wave a magic wand and turn back the clock.
I’ve done it too… missed an allergen
A similar thing happened to me recently. I found a new very intereting looking product. I checked the ingredients in the shop. I checked it again in the shop. I put it back and checked it again. The product I was looking at were the Gourmet Sourdough toasts pictured below.
I checked the ingredients again when I got home just after taking this photograph. So how on earth could I have missed that the main ingredient, marked in bold, just as it should be, was indeed milk.
I think there are a few reasons why we miss things, that when we check afterwards, are literally staring us in the face:
- We are only human and we make mistakes
- We often see what we want to see and miss things
- I just scanned over this as it was shown here next to Ingredients, also in bold, and so for me, reading it in the shop and at home, it kind of blended in and just didn’t stand out for me.
- I was looking or Dairy or Milk, not Buttermilk. I should have been looking for Butter too but…
- We sometimes assume it’s what we usually buy and don’t check
- The typeface is often very small
- White writing on a darker background is harder for us to read
- Excuses, excuses. We make mistakes. And for those of us with allergies, sometimes these mistakes can be catastrophic.
I wrote about my near miss minor allergic reaction in a previous blog post, entitled, 999 allergy call – get a taxi!
This incident really shook me, and not just because, had it been a very severe reaction I would not have been able to get an ambulance as they were all busy. It also scared me because I had checked. I checked that label over and over again and I still missed that buttermilk. How is that even possible?
I wanted to also share the lovely message I received from Siobhan who makes those divine, but sadly unavailable to me, Sourdough toasts. I wrote to her asking lots of questions, mainly to chat about how they might make it more obvious on the packaging that this was a milk based product. This is what she said:
“Thank you for taking the time to write. I feel you pain, and your frustration.
Having married a dairy farmer many moons ago, and living and now baking in the Galway countryside in converted farm building here; he ( the beloved hubby ) developed a dairy allergy himself in the last 3 years. Go figure!. And so I really empathise re: the limitations of your allergy. I find, as the principal shopper, that there is hidden milk and/or butter in many unexpected places; and eating out is a challenge.
The breads are made with buttermilk ( acidic) which react with the alkaline raising agent ( Bread Soda) to make gas that rises the bread; and that is the nature of sodabread. In terms of percentages – yes, the buttermilk would be just marginally more than the % of flour in the recipe. And so, it is correct that it appears first.
In terms of your reaction, cultured buttermilk contains bacteria which can help in breaking down lactose, and hence it can be a dairy product which people with lactose intolerance can tolerate in small amounts. Hence, I would imagine, your not too severe reaction. Having said that, hubby Paul does not eat them here as it is never worth the potential hardship.
I take on board your name suggestion, and think it is a good idea. I will run by the team here, and see if we cant incorporate it into the next reprint of packaging. So thank you for that.
We do have many other products suitable for dairy intolerances, from Cereals, Cookies, Rocky Road bar, Cookie Shots, Flapjack bar to a fruity Cider cake and then the mince pies and Christmas cake at Christmastime. If you go on the website www.foodsofathenry.ie and into the online shop – you can filter the products there by allergen so you can see what’s available. That should set you in the right direction.
There are no plans in place to run with a dairy free cracker as there are other projects that need doing first; but I would never rule it out. Himself does miss them; but I bake him bread and a special cake every Saturday so there is no loss on him. 😊
Glad to hear your mother enjoyed. And anything else I can help with, please get in touch. “
Interesting to note that the buttermilk may have perhaps been less allergenic than other forms of dairy, which might explain the minor reaction that I had. After one bite of that cracker I had tingling lips, tongue and itchy throat. I felt confused and disorientated but it did not progress to an anaphylactic reaction. Thank goodness.
Finally, anyone wanting to try those sourdough toasts, they are absolutely delicious. I found them in Waitrose and I only ate a tiny mouthful before spitting them out but my Mum enjoyed them very much. So if you are only avoiding gluten, wheat and egg, these are for you! Go try them!
Have you ever missed an allergen despite religiously checking? How many times do you check? How can we prevent mistakes like this happening? Such a tragedy, and I don’t want to take away from the seriousness and the families loss. Freefrom ranges can be confusing, with different ranges and changing stock.
The moral of the story is, check, check, check, check and before eating, check again. And in my case, perhaps get someone with better eyesight to also check!
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