Beware nutty cakes at the Co-Op

Link: Food Standards Agency – Gadsby’s withdraws five bakery products

I don’t make a habit of posting blog entries about food, but this one caught my eye – so I thought I’d share it.

Gadsby’s of Southwell Ltd has withdrawn five different bakery products from certain Co-op stores due to incorrect allergen labelling information. Almond is not declared on the labels which may make the products unsuitable for people with a nut allergy. The Agency has issued an Allergy Alert.

The company has withdrawn the affected products from Co-op stores in the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire area. Customers with a nut allergy are advised not to eat the products as they contain almond which is not declared on the labels.

With me so far? Good. So what’s this got to do with SMS and mobile? Tucked away at the bottom of the press release, I found this useful bit of information:

You can get details of all the latest allergy alerts as soon as they’re issued by getting the details sent as a SMS text message direct to your mobile phone.

To sign up to this free service, simply send the text message ‘START ALLERGY’ to the number 62372. To unsubscribe, just text ‘STOP ALLERGY’ to the same number.

Having never had a nut allergy, and not really being allergic to anything (except Marmite, and that’s more of a ‘eww it’s disgusting’ thing than a proper allergy), I didn’t realise there was an Allergy Alert service – and it was available by SMS. How neat is that? If you do know someone that has a nut allergy, or you’re just curious to know when this sort of information is released, you can get it delivered straight to your phone courtesy of the UK’s Food Standards Agency.

Another great example of the public sector finally getting on the mobile bandwagon.