Peanut

Peanut is a legume. It grows underground on a plant related to peas and beans, and it is not botanically a nut at all.

That matters less than it sounds. Allergy to peanut and allergy to tree nuts are separate conditions that often occur together, and the labelling rules treat them as two separate allergens rather than one category. So “nut-free” on a package is a claim that needs reading carefully, because it may mean one, the other, or both.

What the law requires

Peanut is named in the US list of nine major food allergens and is one of the fourteen in Europe. A product containing it must say so, either in the ingredient list or in a “contains” statement, and there is no room for it to hide inside “vegetable protein” or “natural flavour”.

Of all the ingredients on this site, this is among the best served by labelling. The rule is strict, the enforcement is taken seriously, and the allergen line is reliable.

The exemption, and its edge

There is one carve-out and it is written into the definition itself. The law exempts “any highly refined oil derived from” a major allergen “and any ingredient derived from such highly refined oil”.

So highly refined peanut oil does not have to be declared as an allergen. The reasoning is the same one behind the wheat-based maltodextrin exemption: refining removes the protein that provokes the reaction, and regulators assessed the residue rather than overlooking it.

The edge is where it gets uncomfortable. Cold-pressed, expelled and extruded peanut oils are not highly refined and do carry protein. They are not covered by the exemption and must be declared. But a label saying only “peanut oil” does not always tell you which kind you have.

For most people this is academic. For a severe peanut allergy it is the one place the rule leaves a question, and the answer is with the manufacturer rather than the packet.

Names that are not obvious

Arachis is the botanical genus and appears as “arachis oil” on some cosmetic and pharmaceutical labels, particularly in the UK and in older formulations.

Groundnut and monkey nut are common names in several English-speaking markets.

Mandelonas are peanuts soaked in almond flavouring, historically sold as an almond substitute, and they are the reason a peanut-allergic person cannot assume something sold as almond is almond.

All of these trigger a peanut declaration where allergen rules apply, so the allergen statement catches them without you needing to know the vocabulary.

Early introduction

The guidance on introducing peanut to infants changed substantially in the last decade, and it changed towards earlier rather than later introduction for many children.

That is a clinical matter decided by a child’s own risk profile and it is not a label-reading question. If you are making that decision, it belongs with your paediatrician or allergy team, and the general approach to reading labels for a small child is on the page for parents.