Peanuts Served on Aircraft

With reference to Pat Dahlman’s letter “Peanuts Served on Aircraft” (4th quarter 1998, Travel Medicine NewsShare, page 8), this topic has been the subject of serious debate amongst airline doctors for some years. Efforts by some carriers to totally ban peanuts from their flights have not been successful. Peanut snacks are ubiquitous and even when airlines stop providing them, there is no effective way of preventing passengers from bringing peanuts, peanut products, and foods cooked in peanut oil onto commercial flights. Even the efforts by some airlines to provide peanut free meals have resulted in failure and already one death has been reported when an international carrier gave a passenger the wrong meal, having promised it was peanut free.

Because of the serious nature of this problem, the only effective way of dealing with it is for the affected passenger to provide their own food on the flight and to carry suitable medications for use in the event of an adverse allergic reaction. The bottom line is that, sadly, there is no 100% effective way of ensuring that flights are peanut free and rather than induce a false sense of security in those who are unfortunate enough to suffer from this allergy, it is better to be up front about this and let those with the allergy make their own decisions on the wisdom of travel on commercial flights.

Airlines are always looking for ways to improve service to their customers and it would be interesting to hear from any ISTM members who may have new ideas on the subject.

Dr J C Merritt, Principal Medical Officer, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd