In recent months, I’ve noticed more Tesco own brand products appear to be labelled “may contain nuts” (thanks Alison and Tracey for flagging this too). Goodbye “Ingredients: cannot guarantee nut free”… It seems Tesco are phasing out the recipe/ingredients/factory format and moving instead to “may contain nuts”. Whatever your take on it, it’s all soon to be academic.
#Chocolatier 3 glitch pecans free#
Others find this wording more helpful than a blanket “may contain nuts”, and may risk buying the product, perhaps taking a view depending on the type of product and whether there is a nut free alternative available. Personally, I regard “Ingredients: Cannot guarantee nut free” as just another form of “may contain” wording, and avoid it in the same way I would for products with other forms of advisory wording.
Some nut mums see it as a cop out, particularly when a company with Tesco’s clout surely has the power to insist that its suppliers implement effective allergen management controls. It seems to be a label format which polarises opinion. Then “Ingredients: Cannot guarantee nut free” means they cannot vouch that all of those ingredients have not come into contact with nuts at some point during the production process (for example, at the harvesting and transport stages, before they arrive at the “no nuts” factory). My understanding is that “Recipe: No nuts” means there have been no nuts intentionally added to the ingredients. It’s certainly a format that makes you scratch your head on first reading. If you live in the UK and are shopping for nut safe foods, you will no doubt be all too familiar with Tesco’s customary warning wording: