Food allergies prompt concerns over unlabeled items

Published 9:50 pm Saturday, March 8, 2008

ARLINGTON — More than a week ago, Joan Deigert went to a Starbucks store and bought a snack, a cream cheese pastry.

When she got home and took a bite, she said she noticed it seemed to have an almond flavor.

While Deigert isn’t allergic to nuts, the nurse realized that other people can have life-threatening allergies to nuts. Did the pastry have any actual nuts in it, she wondered. And if it did, how would a customer find out?

“I don’t want to see a child hurt or see a family suffer,” Deigert said. “It’s a preventable tragedy.”

Getting an answer to Deigert’s questions on ingredients proved more complicated than she anticipated.

She bought the pastry at a kiosk located inside a Safeway store in Lake Stevens. So although the employees are trained by Starbucks, Safeway is licensed to operate the stand.

Deigert called Starbucks headquarters to find out whether there were nuts in her pastry. She called Safeway.

“You couldn’t find out,” Deigert said.

Teena Massingill, a Safeway spokeswoman, said that the company has since called Deigert to discuss the problem.

“We apologize that she didn’t get the customer service she deserved,” Massingill said. “Certainly, we want her to receive any sort of information she wants on products she purchases at Safeway.”

The answer to Deigert’s question, Massingill said, is that the cream cheese pastry does not contain nuts. However, it is made at a bakery that does produce products with nuts.

Information about a product’s ingredients are available on store computers, which are available to employees, Massingill said.

To make it easier for employees to get the information, Safeway stores will soon have guidebooks that list the nutritional information of their products. The manual is expected to be in stores within the next 60 days, she said.

A severe allergic reaction to common foods and other substances, called anaphylaxis, can be life-threatening. Some people are so sensitive, they don’t have to take a full bite of something to suffer a reaction. Even something as simple as someone using a pair of tongs to pick up a banana nut muffin and then using the same tongs to pick up a sugar cookie can be life-threatening to the most severely allergic.

As she tried to get answers, Deigert also called the Snohomish Health District to find out what the rules are on listing ingredients for freshly-prepared foods.

“A customer should be able to ask what the ingredients are and get an answer,” said Rick Zahalka, who oversees the public health agency’s restaurant and food inspection program.

An inspector went to the Safeway store on Wednesday and found that a list of ingredients for the pastries sold at the Starbucks kiosk is now available, Zahalka said.

Zahalka said he also will talk to inspectors about the issue and ask them to check during routine inspections on whether product ingredients are available for unpackaged food products sold in the county’s stores.

Steps being taken by Safeway and Snohomish Health District should help customers get the information they want.

“To me it’s a win,” she said. “My main concern was that they not sell the product or display it until it was properly labeled.”

Herald reporter Sharon Salyer at 425-339-3486 of salyer@heraldnet.com.