Allergies and Intolerances

What’s the difference between food allergies and food intolerances?

Food allergies
When a person is allergic to a specific food, it triggers an immune response that doesn’t occur in the majority of people. Allergic reactions are usually localised to a particular part of the body. Symptoms may include asthma, eczema, flushing, swelling of the tissues (usually the lips) or difficulty breathing.

The severity of the immune response varies in individuals. However, if someone has a severe food allergy they may suffer an anaphylactic shock (rapid fall in blood pressure and severe shock) which can be life-threatening.

Food allergies can be caused by any food but the most common foods are milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts, shellfish and fish.

Sometimes children grow out of their allergy during their childhood but others are present for life.

Food intolerances
When a person is food intolerant, they will have a reaction to specific foods but these do not necessarily result in an immune response.

Though not generally life-threatening, intolerances can be extremely unpleasant and can result in a variety of symptoms such as constipation, diarrhoea, stomach bloating, headaches or skin rashes. These symptoms may not necessarily appear directly after eating the food and may take a few hours to develop.

If you think you may have a food allergy or intolerance, it is important to seek medical advice for proper diagnosis. A dietician will advise a diet plan to avoid the foods that are causing the allergy or intolerance. These websites are useful sources of further information:


How we can help....

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

When developing new foods, wherever possible we avoid the use of ingredients that are commonly known to cause allergies, particularly in foods where you wouldn’t expect to find them e.g. milk powder in sliced ham.

Where we can, we also provide a choice within our ranges for customers who wish to avoid particular ingredients e.g. gluten free Christmas pudding.

PRODUCT INFORMATION LISTS

To help our customers identify products suitable for their diets, we offer products lists which do not contain the following ingredients:

  • Gluten
  • Nuts
  • Milk and Lactose
  • Egg
  • Soya
  • Added Yeast and Yeast Extracts
  • Sesame

    We also provide products lists suitable for vegetarian and vegan diets.

    Our lists are updated on a monthly basis and are available in stores, from customer services and can be downloaded here.

    We can also combine our lists for customers who may have more than one allergy or intollerance. Please email our Nutritionist or contact customer services who can create a personalised list for you.

    Allergen labelling

    To help our customers easily identify whether a product is suitable for their diet we clearly list within the 'contains' box on the back of the pack, if the product or its ingredients contain any of the following:

    Nuts; cows milk; goats/ewes/buffalo milk; eggs; fish; shellfish; soya; wheat; rye; barley; oats; gluten; sesame; phenylalanine; salt substitute potassium chloride; sulphites; celery; mustard

    For example,

    • Where there is a risk of contamination from other allergens, this additional statement will appear on pack:

    Nuts and Sesame

    For products containing nuts, the type of nut will be listed in the ingredients list and the logo ‘Not suitable for nut allergy suffers’ will be applied to the pack.

    If the product doesn’t contain nuts or sesame - but has been produced in a factory that handles nut or sesame ingredients, the following statements will appear on pack:

    Gluten Free

    Our specially developed gluten free products, such as our Gluten Free Fruit Cake, are labelled with our gluten free icon:



    Cafes, Restaurants and Deli Bars

    Within our Cafes, Deli bars and Restaurants we make and bake a large amount of products.  Due to this unfortunately, we can not guarantee any product is free from allergens due to potential cross contamination risks from product, people and the environment. More information is available on each product in store.