Just a warning for rapeseed intolerant people

meritaten

the below is copied from my thread I posted in Praise Vent and Warnings.
I know many posters on here have IBS or various intolerances so this may be useful here too.

I picked up a punnet of cress on a visit to Tesco last week. I love cress and today wondered why 'some' of the leaves looked a little different to others.
well, upon reading the label I find that although its LABELLED cress its actually 80% rape. Surely this is misleading - it should be labelled RAPE!

it tasted similar, but I have now chucked what was left as I am intolerant to rapeseed oil and certainly don't want to be eating the actual plant. I did wonder what on earth was causing the intermittent bouts of Runs, as I mainly live on Salads and the proteins I know I can tolerate.

the label states it was grown by Jan Bentley in the UK.

I am so annoyed! at myself for taking at face value that it was actually CRESS and at Tesco and Jan Bentley for making me ill over the last week!

who the heck would think to check the ingredient list on a salad ingredient? if it wasn't for the fact I hadn't used much and it was growing nicely on my kitchen windowsill - I wouldn't have!

I think I will grow my own now from seeds from reputable growers - last punnet of cress I will EVER buy!

Mojisola

meritaten wrote: »

I picked up a punnet of cress on a visit to Tesco last week. I love cress and today wondered why 'some' of the leaves looked a little different to others.

well, upon reading the label I find that although its LABELLED cress its actually 80% rape. Surely this is misleading - it should be labelled RAPE!

It's not a new thing. Rapeseed (or a mixture of rapeseed and cress) has been used in place of cress for some years in the commercial product.

meritaten

moji - its the fact it was labelled 'CRESS' and rape constitutes 80% of the product. its not cress then is it? its rape. and uk labelling law surely frowns on not labelling with the main ingredient? I used to grow 'mustard and cress' as a kid. I still do grow cress from reputable seed suppliers - it was just I didn't have any seeds and fancied some.
I don't get why just because its 'standard practice' its acceptable. not when it breaks the law! and people unaware of 'standard' practice buy in good faith.

Mojisola

meritaten wrote: »

moji - its the fact it was labelled 'CRESS' and rape constitutes 80% of the product. its not cress then is it? its rape. and uk labelling law surely frowns on not labelling with the main ingredient? I used to grow 'mustard and cress' as a kid. I still do grow cress from reputable seed suppliers - it was just I didn't have any seeds and fancied some.
I don't get why just because its 'standard practice' its acceptable. not when it breaks the law! and people unaware of 'standard' practice buy in good faith.

The definition of 'cress' isn't one particular plant - although most of us would think of Lepidium sativum as cress.

Cress can be seedlings of any plant of the mustard family.

VfM4meplse

In all my years of practice I have never once come across a true allergy to rapeseed. Intolerances I can accept, but they too are also unusual.

Only saying.

GwylimT

meritaten wrote: »

moji - its the fact it was labelled 'CRESS' and rape constitutes 80% of the product. its not cress then is it? its rape. and uk labelling law surely frowns on not labelling with the main ingredient? I used to grow 'mustard and cress' as a kid. I still do grow cress from reputable seed suppliers - it was just I didn't have any seeds and fancied some.
I don't get why just because its 'standard practice' its acceptable. not when it breaks the law! and people unaware of 'standard' practice buy in good faith.

A product needs to contain very little of the labelled flavour, chicken soup for example need only contain 4% chicken or chicken derivatives.

meritaten

VfM4meplse wrote: »

In all my years of practice I have never once come across a true allergy to rapeseed. Intolerances I can accept, but they too are also unusual.

Only saying.

that's what I said VfM4. I am intolerant to rapeseed oil. It triggers my IBS and my body reacts by getting rid of it superquick! lol.

I have spent the last nearly two years keeping a food diary and doing elimination and reintroduction 'experiments' with food. I pretty much know what I can and can't eat.
My only real allergies are to Aspirin and Codeine - so I know the difference there too. Intolerance is usually just V&D but allergy is 'Life threatening'.

littlewhatnot

There may be a difference between a life threatening allergy and an intolerance, but an intolerance can be very severe, I started becoming ill when rapeseed oil start entering almost all of the food chain, I was so ill, and it just got worse and worse until my body felt 'poisoned'. I struggled to find the culprit and eventually found it was rapeseed oil. It is now in almost all foods, breads, cakes and snacks. Very hard to avoid, as it is not listed as an allergen it isn't even in bold on the foods.

I wonder how many people are walking around out feeling incredibly ill and poisoned and no one has a clue what is wrong with them.?

moneyistooshorttomention

I'd not heard of this intolerance before - but I try to be aware of what I can and can't feed other people.

I do cater for intolerance/allergy/individual personal choice (of the vegetarian/vegan/etc type - though not the "religious" type).

So it's useful to know I have to bear that in mind actually - as it hadnt occurred to me.

I do think food should be labelled accurately as to what ingredients it has in it.

This may go back beyond the supermarket to the foodstuff supplier possibly? I know it's irritating to buy food plants for the garden and just be told "It's a blackcurrant bush" for instance - but not be told exactly which type of blackcurrant it is - or see someone flogging nasturtium plants and it's just labelled "nasturtium". That sort of thing does happen and I find it annoying to not know the exact type of whatever-it-is they are trying to sell me.

mashedavocado

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I do cater for intolerance/allergy/individual personal choice (of the vegetarian/vegan/etc type - though not the "religious" type).

There's no difference between individual personal choice and religious choice, surely? :S

honeythewitch

VfM4meplse wrote: »

In all my years of practice I have never once come across a true allergy to rapeseed. Intolerances I can accept, but they too are also unusual.

Only saying.

Would people mention it if it was a mild intolerance that is easily avoided?

I am surprised that rapeseed oil is usually sold as just "vegetable oil" when it only contains rapeseed.
I thought it was one of the healthier oils, so you would think they would promote it?