Domino’s Pizza is no longer nut-free. Approximately two weeks ago, they launched their new chocolate lava crunch cakes in Canada, which indicate presence of peanuts and tree nuts in the manufacturing facility.
I spoke to the manager of the store near me. She gave me the number for the head office and advised that the cakes come in tin foil and are heated in that foil, but then they’re unmolded into a box. No precautions are taken when handling the cakes, and the employee would then move on to box a pizza. No allergy alert signage has been given to her, and the allergen information on the Canadian website I accessed had not been updated.
I did locate this allergen information on Dominos Australian website, which has peanuts & tree nuts indicated for the lava cakes (and the brownies & ice cream which aren’t on the menu yet in Canada):
Allergen_Listing_Dominos_AU_Dec_2010
As the mother of a boy allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, we avoid these nuts even in trace amounts. Because of this, my son will no longer be participating in Dominos pizza day at his school. I’ve alerted our hot lunch coordinator and school principal of this issue, so that they can inform the other allergic families. I’ve also contacted Dominos corporate office to offer to discuss safety protocols to minimize the risk of cross-contamination on hot lunch days, so that families like ours may again be able to participate.
** If you’re reading this as an e-mail message, to visit my blog to read more articles or to write a comment, click here: http://blog.onespotallergy.com/2010/12/dominos-pizza-allergy-alert/
UPDATE:
A concerned reader contacted Domino’s office in Windsor, Ontario about this issue, and was provided with this response:
“Hello,
There are no peanuts, peanut oils, tree nuts in our pizza crusts, pizza sauce, pizza cheese, standard pizza toppings (beef, green pepper, ham, mushrooms, black olives, onions, pepperoni, pineapple and Italian sausage), chicken kickers, chicken wings, bread side items or salads. Soybean oil is used in all of our dough formulas.
Lava Cakes are made in facilities that manufacture products with peanuts/tree nuts. They are not made on the same production line, and good manufacturing practices are in place to separate them from possible contaminations. Also, there may be special promotional and/or test products present in the store. Therefore, we cannot ensure that all of the products present are completely free of peanuts/tree nuts.”
From this message and the conversations I’ve had with a few store managers, the fact that these cakes are made in facilities that use nuts and could contain enough traces of those allergens to cause a life-threatening reaction is not understood. In addition, the risk of cross contamination between these foods and the safe foods has been overlooked and precautions are not in place to prevent cross contamination from happening.
My son has withdrawn from his school pizza lunch program, and we instead sent homemade pizza from home.