‘Add peas to the label after my boy’s brush with death’

One morning from school, Rex, at the age of nine, became a hot cross. After minutes, he was struggling to breathe and went into anaphylactic shock.

Rex is allergic to peas and lentils – a material that you usually will not expect to find in a hot cross bun. However, when Rex’s mother saw the packaging, it used the glazing used on the bun on pea protein – which led to the reaction to Rex’s allergies.

The pea is not one of the 14 allergies required by the law listed on the food label, but Early this weekExperts said – among others – should be.

Rex’s father, Tom, says, “It seems that many of these things are booby”.

“We could not understand why,” they say. “It was not a vegetarian recipe. What is pea protein doing in a hot cross become?”

When he went into Anaphylactic shock, Rex was quickly given his appearance and rushed to the hospital. He made a complete recovery, but hot cross buns are not just an unknown product by which he has been tried.

During the June heatwave, Rex bought an ice cream after school from a corner shop. As he had earlier eaten this particular brand, he did not investigate the packaging, but unknown to him, Ice cream now had pea protein and there was another allergic reaction.

Tom says Rex is now “afraid” to accidentally eat peas and react to allergies.

He agrees with experts that the list of 14 allergies to include peas should be expanded and feels “disappointed” that it is being added rapidly to foods.

Under the current rules, food packaging in the UK and the European Union already lists the most common allergy for people, such as eggs, peanuts and mole.

They should be clearly emphasized, usually in bold, on the label, while the restaurants will either lie allergies on the menu or inform customers verbally.

Rex is not only the only children caught by pea proteins in products.

In 2023, Becky gave her son a ice loll, which he had earlier eaten without any issue. However, now at the age of five, cough started quickly, while his throat was irritated. Lollies had pea protein – which is his son, like Rex, is severely allergic.

For Becky and her husband, expanding the list of allergies to include a clear warning for peas will be “life-changing” and “weight” from their brain.

He said, “It is difficult and difficult to say ‘Okay, it is probably not peas’ because peas are in things that you will never think that it will happen,” he said.

“It is like playing the game of rough.”

Although it is becoming more normal, people with pea allergies have not been taken seriously as other allergies.

The 25 -year -old Charlotte is allergic to all pulses – including peas, chickpeas and lentils. She welcomes the expansion of the Ellergen list as it will make people more aware of her allergies because she often states that it is “not a real allergy”.

“I think because it is a joke that people do not like peas, people think that I just create excitement,” she says.

“People do not consider it real allergies or also understand what it is.”

Charlotte says that it can make food quite difficult. Two weeks ago she went out for dinner in London and received an allergy response, but the employees insisted that her food was not contaminated.

“I apologized that I was having an allergy response because I felt that I am so embarrassed that I am making an inconvenience for him.”

Becky also says that his son also has similar experiences.

He is allergic to eggs, peanuts, nuts, sesame, chickpeas, peas and lentils, but his reaction to peas is seen in a very different way – even if it is as serious, if it is not worse than his reaction to peanuts.

This is not just pea allergies that are becoming more normal. Experts also suggested that an allergic reaction label should be added to pine nuts, a type of grain and a lamb and goat milk foods.

20 -year -old Annabel has just completed a degree at the University of Cambridge. He is allergic to pine nuts and believes that include him in the list of allergies may possibly be “life savings” for him.

Like Charlotte, Annabel found that communication of his allergies with restaurants can be a very hit or missed.

“I often feel that my allergy is not taken seriously,” she says. “When I tell allergies to pine nuts, most of the time they respond to ‘peanuts’?”

She says that the staff often tells her that there is no nut in her food, but thinks that they only mean nuts that are identified as part of 14 allergies.

She had three anaphylactic reactions when she was informed by the restaurant that her food did not have pine nuts.

Annabel says that adding it to the list will make him feel “very confident” while eating out.

“My family likes to eat a lot outside and I do not want to go often, or when I am with my friends, I always tell all the people around me, ‘This is where my epipulation is, this is what happens, if something happens, if something happens,’ [so] There will be such a big difference for me to not worry and worry. ,

The agency of food standards stated that it was previously recognized that there are significant number of foods that could cause allergies or intolerance.

While the allergy UK said that it was calling for full component labeling on all food products keeping an eye on worrying trends.