Waitrose Organic Dried Mango Slices 150g

A Campaign member recently bought the above product. On closer examination the pack contained a hazelnut, a pistachio shell and a cranberry.

The pack does carry a ‘may contain traces of nuts and sesame’ statement because the factory and the production line pack a wide range of dried fruits and nuts including those listed above.

During the investigation Waitrose confirmed that only organic dried mango was packed on that line on that day and the previous day was packing non-organic mango. Waitrose also states that the supplier has full cleaning procedures in place between products to minimise cross contamination risk, that quality control checks are in place during production and the samples taken were satisfactory and that the factory is independently audited.

Waitrose says: “The product has been on sale since Oct 08 and there have been no other complaints or any queries raised by our stores. Waitrose believe this to be an isolated incident and will continue to investigate this further with their supplier.

“Waitrose do not use ‘may contain’ statements indiscriminately, they are only used where a real risk exists to deter nut allergic customers from consuming these products.”

The Campaign would like to remind anyone living with a severe food allergy that in most cases “may contain” warnings are used because there is a genuine risk of cross contamination.  They should therefore be taken very seriously.