Mustard Allergy Notice
| The FSA has warned that mustard products may pose a risk to those with peanut allergies
Published on 10 October 2024
The Food Standards Agency have been advising people who have a peanut allergy to avoid consuming foods that contain or may contain mustard, mustard powder or mustard flour because they may have been contaminated with peanuts.
This issue has affected lots of products in the UK and it is currently thought to originate from the agricultural practises before these products had entered the UK market.
Essential Trading Co-operative has a robust traceability and recall system in place, so any customer affected by a recall issued directly by the Food Standards Agency has been contacted. As the scope of this situation has increased we are keeping our customers updated as the situation develops.
Packaging for all Essential 1Kg and 500g herbs and spices contain Precautionary Allergen Labelling (PAL) based on verified allergen testing. We stock and process many different ingredients with allergens and these ingredients can contain allergen risks in the supply chain before we process them also. This includes factors such as agriculture, processing, storing and transport.
One of our herb and spice suppliers has been affected by the recent peanut contamination issue, and has applied an abundance of caution in withdrawing further products. One of their actions in mitigating cross-contamination will be to apply a “May contain tree-nuts and peanuts” to all bulk packaging of mustard products. This statement is already present on our packaging, being updated in 2022.
The Precautionary Allergen Labelling is necessary to inform our customers of the allergen risk they need to be aware of when purchasing our products.
Mustard powder is a common ingredient in many foods and spice blends, always read the product ingredients and labelling, and contact the manufacturer or supplier if in doubt.
More information on the situation and general advice can be found on the Food Standards Agency website: https://www.food.gov.uk/allergy-advice-mustard-ingredients-contaminated-with-peanuts