Singapore Airlines stops serving peanuts as snacks in all cabin classes

[lingua101]

You are quite right. Peanut allergies seem to be getting more and more common. And unfortunately, because the proteins of peanuts are similar to many "tree-nuts" (even though it ISN't really a nut), cross-allergies do occur.

And you are also right in that so many people can have issues with so many other things that we need to draw a line somewhere. So a balance has to be made depending on "commonness" and "severity". Peanut allergies are quite common and severe peanut allergies can cause fatal reaction, so I am not surprised at the move.

However, SQ obviously decided to take a small risk in allowing walnuts, almonds and cashews (also not a nut) even though there are people with cross-allergies to them.

Selfishly, though, I do hope to continue having satay on-board (though that is not my only reason for flying SQ).

the onus is on the passenger. if s/he does not even know that s/he has allergy to peanuts then blame to her/himself.

[SQ228]

Paging SQ228....

Been busy this week!

Given the awful allergy training sessions I have had to sit through, this move doesn't surprise me. The key factor here is airborne particles. Satay is a sauce and a rather sticky one at that, so would tend to stay put. The same goes for nuts in other sauces and dishes etc. Allergic passengers can be served special meals.

Several hundred people, however, all opening foil packs of peanuts at the same time in an enclosed, densely packed, heavily air-conditioned environment would be the issue, I believe. Also, because of people shaking them out of the packets and the tiny fragments that are often at the bottom, this distributes peanut traces all over the interior which will not necessarily be picked up during cleaning between flights. These two issues don't get fixed by a person telling the airline to not personally give them a packet of nuts.

Nobody is more irritated by a "concerned parent" with an allergic child than me, but the reality is that no airline wants an anaphylactic emergency in mid air. Truthfully, I also don't want someone to sit nearby me in fear or have to inject themselves with drugs just so I can have a tiny packet of cheap peanuts. It's annoying, but unfortunately it's real.