Flybe to remove peanuts and nuts-based snacks from its menus

Allergy sufferers can suffer severe reactions to certain ingredients.

The airline which operates more than 143,000 flights a year, carrying 9.5 million passengers, will bring in the change to its Café Flybe menu from Monday.

Roy Kinnear, Flybe’s chief commercial officer, said whilst the results of more definitive medical research were needed to assess the extent of the issue, the airline had decided to err on the side of caution.

“Passenger safety is our number one priority, and this extends across all aspects of our own operation.

“That is why we take the issue of nut allergies extremely seriously and, as an additional measure to those already being taken, have now removed all peanuts and nut-based products from our on board Café Flybe menu.

“We will also, of course, continue to take the existing preventative measures we have had in place for many years to further reassure those passengers who advise us they are at risk.

“Nevertheless, despite all the measures we might take it should be stressed that no public environment can ever be guaranteed to be one hundred per cent ‘nut-free’.”

Mr Kinear added that precautionary announcements will continue and that any passenger with a food-related allergy of any type is advised to always check product labels and packaging for specific ingredient information.

In July 2016 Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, 15, who suffered from severe food allergies, collapsed on a flight from London to Nice and later died in hospital.

Ms Ednan-Laperouse had checked the label on a baguette, then got her father to double-check it, before eating the product from the Pret A Manger food chain.

She died after a severe reaction to sesame seeds in the baguette.

The inquest into her death heard that sesame was not listed as an ingredient on the baguette’s packaging.