Thursday, October 25, 2007

Nutty

A photo of a packet of nuts

So, we've all heard those silly tales of nut packets with the warning sign Warning: Contains nuts. Well, I blooming well hope so. That's what I'm paying for, isn't it? But you can understand. It's EU regulations, and the law cannot allow exceptions. Imagine, if you will: All foods which contain nuts or nut traces must display a warning sign on the packaging. (Unless it is obvious that the food contains nuts.) How do you define obvious?

But it does get a bit silly when a packet of mixed nuts says Warning: May contain nuts. May? I suppose they're just sticking the same sign on everything, regardless of how likely it is to contain nuts. May is a beautifully catch-all word, covering the full range of probability.

Now, though, we move on to the next level of absurdity. The packet photographed above warns us that it may contain nut traces.

Yes, I suppose that is a possibility.