why do some packets of peanuts have the warning may contian nuts on them?

Answer 1

Same reason that hair blowers have a warning not to use them when sleeping. The lawyers are trying to cover every base to avoid any potential lawsuits.

Answer 2

By law, any food products which may contain allergens (and that includes food processed in the same factory as nuts, seeds, eggs, soya, milk, and in some cases wheat) have to be labelled. Why they say "may contain" on packaging which clearly and obviously does is beyond my comprehension, although granted with certain processed foods it can be hard to tell the ingredients by look, taste and texture alone...

Some of the funniest food warning labels I have seen have been on sweets. The World's Biggest Jawbreaker, for example, has a note on the back of the box stating that it may be a choking hazard. I'd never have guessed. Another one was on a bag of Rainblo bubblegum: not suitable for young children due to small parts.

Re the nuts v legumes thing, tomatoes are a fruit and cucumber is a member of the melon family. That won't stop anybody trying to sue, and it CERTAINLY won't prevent some smartass with a (pea)nut allergy trying to claim plausible deniability "because the packet didn't say so"!!!

Answer 3

I know im not the first to say it on this question, but it seems it needs to be stated again. PEANUTS ARE NOT NUTS, they're legumes. Peanut allergies and nut allergies are different. It would be like a jar of peanut butter saying "processed in a facility that also processes butter". Just because their names are similar doesnt mean they have anything in common One could have a nut allergy and safely eat peanuts if the peanuts were kept seperate from real nuts at all times. and vice versa.

Answer 4

I saw evey answer except the correct one.

The reason that peanut packages say "may contain nuts" is because peanuts are not nuts at all they are legumes. Nuts come from trees, peanuts come from plants. Although they are not nuts they are processed in the same plant as nuts (usually) and sometime a stray walnut or pecan can find it's way into a bag of peanuts and some people are deathly allergic to "nuts".

And there you have it..........

Answer 5

Somebody thought they were correct to put that label on them.

Peanuts are not nuts, they are from the same family as Peas. The do not contain nuts.

They would be correct to say "May contain nut traces" if they were packed in a factory that also handles nuts, because some people have a nut allergy.

Answer 6

My son used to eat peanuts and he was fine,but he had cashew nuts and had a major reaction them. The lips blister,The face and body swell up and become lumpy and the airway can close up. Another attack could be fatal. We check every product when shopping even ice cream is made with nuts. So it's not stupid having a warning on a packet of nuts.

Answer 7

Because peanuts are not true nuts they are actually a type of pea.
Both peanuts and peas are in the Legume family of plants, peanuts have the genus Arachis hypogaea
Arachis
rosid dicot genus - a genus of dicotyledonous plants
Fabaceae, family Fabaceae, family Leguminosae, legume family, Leguminosae, pea family - a large family of trees, shrubs, vines, and herbs bearing bean pods; divided for convenience into the subfamilies Caesalpiniaceae; Mimosaceae; Papilionaceae
Arachis hypogaea, peanut vine, peanut - widely cultivated American plant cultivated in tropical and warm regions; showy yellow flowers on stalks that bend over to the soil so that seed pods ripen underground

Answer 8

By law any product that may have traces of nuts or any other allergens must say so on the packet. I used to work for a food packaging design place and you have to put on a bottle of liquid egg 'contains egg' because there are some very dim people in this world.
If one person is allergic to a particular food then it is added to an allergens list. Any food that may contain that item must say so on the packaging.

Answer 9

Despite being called "Nuts" Peanuts are species in the legume family and are not technically nuts.

However most peanuts are packaged in factories that also package real nuts ( same production methods - roasting, salting etc) so there is a danger of cross contamination.

its possible to be have nut or peanut allergies or both - so the message is there to protect the producers from law suits following consumption

Answer 10

For the same reason large companies have people who are employed to imagine all the stupid things people may do with their appliances (e.g. to only use a lawn mower outside and only to mow lawn not trim hedges etc etc) - they must assume the general public are idiots. Of course, this is not always true.

I did buy salmon steaks at Sainsburys which had a warning on the pack that it contained fish. Some people are actually unsure of what animal is what species and may not realise salmon are fish. I guess the same goes for peanuts (ALTHOUGH they are not actually nuts).

Random thought: I recently met someone who did not realise that penguins were birds.

Answer 11

Because the world is full of idiots who fail to grasp the fact that peaNUT probably means a nut product, and will sue if they have an allergic reaction unless something that is obvious to any normal human being is there in writing. Cases like that should be kicked out of court, but modern society is insanely litigation happy so peanut packaging companies must cover their donkeys so they aren't bitten by the dumb donkeys.