General Chat

I thought companies were supposed to be getting better at labelling food but apparently not. I have just had my lunch and within minutes I started getting stomach cramps and I wanted to vomit which means one thing it contained tomato. I’m intolerant to tomato but thankfully not allergic so whilst the side effects are unpleasant I’m not at risk of full anaphylaxis.

Hopefully they get better at labelling soon though as for me it’s unpleasant but for others it’s dangerous.

That is concerning Tawny, have you complained to the company and/or asked for the ingredients in whatever you have just eaten?

I thought all ingredients were supposed to go on the label too, whether or not they could have an allergic reaction.

I have contacted the company to ask what was in it and to suggest they improve their labelling.

Unless I’m intolerant to something new though the rash, stomach cramps and need to vomit leave me in no doubt

Apparently, firms are using a lot of pea protein in foods now - and don't label it.
Why they don't need to label peas, when they have to label peanuts is beyond me.
They're both legumes, and in reality, the allergy isn't a 'peanut' allergy, it's a 'legume' allergy.

Here's an article (relevant, not just something random from youtube) :-D

https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2020/03/16/Pea-protein-trend-sparks-allergy-warning

Any rapeseed oil in it, Tawny?

I never checked but still have the packaging

Yes it’s 8% rapeseed oil. Could that be causing the reaction?

I have no idea, Tawny, but I know that I do not react well to it, so much so that I never use spread (only butter in blocks) and do not eat bread every day. It's a bit of a bind because it is widely used in many products but I usually check whether items contain rapeseed oil before I buy them for myself - in much the same way that I check whether items contain gluten before I buy them for my OH.

Good luck - you may have to go through a patch of trial and error.

Incidentally one of my aunts was allergic to tomatoes! I was a girl when I found out about it and the tomato thing must run down our family because my younger sister, when examined by a doctor before she began a four-year course at a well-known dance centre, with her skin in mind, was told to lay off tomatoes.

I had a patch years ago and I was surprised at what food and drink I am alergic to but the main really bad one was the pollen from Dandelion, also the rays from the sun cause me a bad rash so I cover up and shade bathe.

I ought to have known but I did not twig for a few years. I never had hay fever when I lived in England before but when I came back to England in my forties I started to get it badly.

On a visit to sister-in-law and her OH, he mentioned that a lot of people in their village had developed hay fever symptoms and they thought it was because the village seemed to be surrounded by fields of rapeseed flowers. He also mentioned that farmers had been encouraged as it was a good income for them - whether he was wrong or right, I have no idea.

It was the only explanation that I could think of for developing hay fever at that age. It took me a good while longer to realise how much rapeseed oil was used in food products.

Being the suspicious type, I wondered whether rapeseed oil production had been foisted upon British farmers by an EU which had discovered how many people had been badly affected by its growth there. I’m afraid that possibility is still needling away in the background.

If you come to Canada and the US, do please remember that "rapeseed" is known as CANOLA over here.

It is the same plant, just the common name that is not used.

Canola oil is considered a very healthy oil to use.

There are fields and fields of Canola stretching across the Prairies of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It's a lovely sight in early summer, along with fileds of yellow mustard flowers.

They were the biggest GMO crop developed by Monsanto back in the 90s and early 2000s.

You might also want to check if the Europeans and the Brits fell victim to Monsanto and GMO plants.

I have little difficulty avoiding dairy-containing foods, but do have a problem with the gluten intolerance I have.

There are so many little additions to what at first reading seem to be gluten-free, and you have to know about them all!

My eldest niece (my brother's child) was intolerant to a number of things, including tomatoes and strawberries. Both caused bad rashes.

My daughter seems to have inherited the strawberry intolerance, but loves them so much that she grows them, eats them sparingly, and puts up with the mild rash that causes.

I have avoided both of those, but in later life have developed the lactose- and gluten-intolerances, and recently have realised I have to be careful to keep my sugar intake at its usual very low level, or else I come out in hives!! I have also seemed to get allergy symptoms to soemthing over the last couple of years!!

Ah, what it is to grow older!!!


Edited to add more

Just a curiosity thing but does anyone roast or fry food in dripping or lard?

Yes, Sylvia, Monsanto is known to me. Many years ago I wrote about its genetically modified crops…

and, under the guise of feeding the nations, the ruthlessness of some companies in selling seeds to starving nations that promise bigger and better crops while at the same time ensuring reliance because they cannot be used for propagation, did not escape the notice of some people.

It was around the same time that I wrote about the maquiladora zone in Mexico and other such things.

ZZzzz, I rarely fry things but I use either butter (sparingly) or extra virgin olive oil when I do.

I use lard /dripping when I roast.
I also put dripping on toast! :-D

The brown bits are always best. :-D

Yes brown bits on toast yummy.

Brown bits are the ONLY bits to put on toast!! :-D :-D :-D

JL .....................

I think e have talked about Monsanto before.

OH supervised a graduate student who investigated Monsanto's ethical problems, including those you mentioned plus a number of others.

Her thesis was embargoed, and I think iit is still under that embargo.