I connect with people worldwide as a food allergy expert through my blog and the Onespot Allergy Facebook group. Because I’m also a Canadian lawyer, I’m often asked to comment on legal and policy issues affecting people with food allergies. Andy Oudman of 1290 CJBK radio asked for my opinion about WowButter not being allowed in Thames Valley District School Board schools here in London, Ontario. To hear my opinion, click on the play button on the image below to listen to the interview. Topics discussed are:
Sabrina’s Law, an Act to protect anaphylactic pupils.
Why do 90% of Canadian schools now have school wide peanut/nut safe policies?
Why is WowButter not safe to send to peanut free schools?
What liability issues does WowButter create for schools, teachers, and parents.
Companies that serve the needs of food allergic and gluten free consumers well, like Enjoy Life Foods.
* If you found this post helpful, I would love for you to use the “Sharing Is Caring” bar (below) to share this post via Facebook or Twitter. If you’re reading this as an e-mail message, you need to jump over to my blog first by clicking here.
Recently, a fan provided this liability statement from the WowButter website:
“Once any WOWBUTTER produced leaves our facility, we have no control over what happens to the product by external sources. Possible contamination can occur at any point along the supply chain after leaving our facility. This includes during trucking, warehousing, merchandising at store level as well as in the home environment. Due to the inability to control these external circumstances outside of our facility, we cannot guarantee that any packaging is not contaminated after leaving our facility. Once a package has been opened outside of our facility, we cannot guarantee that any of our products are Peanut and Tree Nut Free. If you are severely allergic to peanuts and/or tree nuts, please use caution and wash all containers prior to handling and inspect all containers for tampering.
He then wrote to WowButter that he “Wholeheartedly agrees with your liability clause quoted above… from your own website…. BUT….. if parents/children, not afflicted with the allergy want to circumvent the rules and use real Peanut Butter in spite of the rules, how will the lunchroom supervisors and the children know that they can trust that real peanut butter remnants don’t linger on the doorknobs, shared school pencils, erasers, etc? You don’t take into account that any of the situations, listed in your own liability clause, are just an accident away from a full blown Peanut/tree nut fatal reaction. Not just a tummy ache or rash or watery eyes… Wowbutter is a loaded gun!!! in the hands of consumers who neither know nor care about the safety of other people with health handicaps.”