Burt's Bees Will Not Tell You What is in Their Products!

I have been writing about my struggle to find bath/body/oral care products that are made in a peanut free facility. This is super important if you have a peanut allergy so that you can be sure that what you are using is truly free of peanuts, and offers no risk of cross contamination, or cross contact, from something with peanuts manufactured in the same facility. I have been reaching out to every brand that I found in my own bathroom cabinet and have emailed or called each brand and asked the same question to find out if any of their products processed in a facility with peanuts? Here is the email that I send to companies:

Hi, This might be a odd question, I am wondering if any of your products are processed/made in a facility with peanuts? Is there any potential for cross contamination of peanuts? I love many of your face products but, I have a peanut allergy and I cannot use any products where peanuts are present in the facility. I am only asking about peanuts, I am not allergic to any other nuts. I did not see any peanuts listed anywhere on your products, but I thought it best to check. I just read that a face lotion they my sister uses is made in a facility with peanuts & therefore not safe for me to use; it would’ve never occurred to me to check face/body type products until I saw that. Please let me know. I hope I can continue to use your products. Thank you very much! Elizabeth Noble

Here is the response I received when I emailed Burt's Bees:

Nehemie (11/06/2019 05:03 AM)

Hello Elizabeth,

Thank you for reaching out to us at Burt's Bees.

We cannot provide a list of products that are safe for use with your allergy because our products may have been manufactured on a shared line with products containing nuts, or raw materials used in our products may have been processed in a facility that also processes nut-based ingredients.

Therefore, we are unable to state that any Burt's Bees products are nut-free. Several of our products are known to contain ingredients derived from nuts, such as nut butters (cocoa, kokum, shea, etc). Again, because of manufacturing these products adjacent to one another, we cannot recommend these products. Food allergies are a very complex: they can be very limited (single nut) or broad (range of tree nuts) depending on the individual; and they differ by topical application vs ingestion.

Please make sure that you carefully review the ingredient list of any product prior to use, particularly because the listed ingredients for a product may change. If you have a known allergy to nuts, you should always consult with your physician if you have questions regarding whether it is safe for you to use a particular product. Thank you for your inquiry.

Sincerely,

Burt's Bees Consumer Services

I was so very upset to read such a rude, condescending and extremely unhelpful response. But, I kept stupidly thinking, 'maybe they didn't understand my question?' So I decided to send a follow up email and request again that they answer my question, I wanted them to let me know if peanuts were present in either their products or their facility, not nuts in general. I also was not sure how consulting my doctor would help ascertain if Burt's Bees products are produced in a facility with peanuts? I was very upset when I wrote my request for further clarification and here is what I wrote back to Nehemie:

Hi Nehemie,

I’m confused by your answer. I was only inquiring about peanuts in your products and facility, not about tree nuts or any other allergen!!

Does Burt’s Bees use PEANUTS or have PEANUTS in the processing facility? I understand why the products are not nut free; I use your products and can read the ingredients.

My question is only about PEANUTS.

I will throw out all my products as a precautionary measure if I don’t hear back from you, but this seems like a question you should be able to answer.

Thank you

The following day I received this response:

Nehemie (11/07/2019 05:07 AM)

Hello Elizabeth,

Thank you for your response.

As we stated before, we cannot provide a list of products that are safe for use with your allergy because our products may have been manufactured on a shared line with products containing nuts, or raw materials used in our products may have been processed in a facility that also processes nut-based ingredients. Therefore, we are unable to state that any Burt's Bees products are nut-free.

If you have a known allergy to (any) nuts, you should always consult with your physician if you have questions regarding whether it is safe for you to use a particular product. Thank you for your inquiry.

Sincerely,

Burt's Bees Consumer Services

I have not written Burt's Bees back to thank Nehemie for her unhelpful and rude answer to my request for further clarification. Burt's Bees still did not answer if there are peanuts in their processing facility and they have made me feel like I should have never asked the question in the first place. After all I have a 'known allergy and I have consulted my physician'! I will never again purchase their products and I am on a journey to urge everyone I can to do the same. This is not how you treat a customer.

I have reached out to countless other bath/body/oral care brands and many have, like Burt's Bees, have basically declined to answer my question, or spoke to me about nuts in general instead of looking into whether peanuts specifically are in their facility. But, none of those brands, through emails, or phone conversations, even come close to how rude and condescending Burt's Bees has been to me, and none have made me feel as hurt by their words and inability to answer a simple yes/no question as Burt's Bees has.

To view my list of brands that offer transparency with their ingredients and their processing facility visit my lists on the No Peanut Foods website.

#burtsbees #customerservice #badcustomerservice #burtsbeesistherworst #peanutallergy #peanutfree #peanutfreefacecream #pesnutfreelipbalm #nonpeanuts #peanutfreezone #brandtransparency #foodallergy

Skip the middle man & buy your Olive Oil at the Farmers Market.

As an adult with a severe peanut allergy I have always struggled with finding foods that are safe for me to eat; foods that are peanut free and processed in a peanut free facility. The FDA does not require brands to include a 'may contain' or 'processed in a facility with' section on a food's label. When you see this notice on a product label it is voluntarily placed there by the company. I am always relieved when I see cross contamination risk listed on a food label. Either it reassures me that a food is safe for me to eat, or it lets me know with definite certainty that a food is in fact not safe to have due to the risk of cross contamination.

But, I began to wonder, what do you do when a label does not list anything about any cross contact risk? Is it still safe to eat, does not seeing any 'may contain' notice on the label mean there are no peanuts present in the facility? I used to think that if there was no warning of cross contact on the product's label that the food was safe for me to eat. However, as I reach out to more and more brands to create my No Peanuts Lists I am realizing that nothing could be further from the truth. What I am in fact discovering is that the majority of the time there is a cross contamination risk with peanuts being present in the processing facility, but the company just chooses to not include this vital information on the product's label.

I’ve written on this blog about discovering that many Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil’s are not what they say they are, and are processed in a facility with peanuts, making them not safe for those of us with a peanut allergy to eat. After discovering that the Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil I had been purchasing at Whole Foods is made in a facility with peanuts (you can read about this on another blog post here) I wanted to find an Olive Oil that I could feel safe eating without any risk of any peanut cross contamination. I also wanted to support a company that offered transparency with the production of their Olive Oil and food products.

I love shopping every Sunday at the Santa Monica Farmers Market and I try my best to support local farmers whenever I can. At the Farmers Market I am able to ask any questions I have face to face with the farmer/brand representative. You skip the middle man and get beautiful, fresh, local produce, and food products, without any worry of there being something unexpected in your food, or the processing facility. I decided that this was the perfect place to start my hunt for a Extra Virgin Olive Oil that is processed in a peanut free facility, one that I could feel safe eating and know is 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I visited the Buon Gusto Farms stand and they were incredibly nice, and happy to answer all my questions. They informed me exactly how they make all their products and they proudly let me know that their facility is peanut free, so I didn't need to worry about any risk of cross contamination.

I now use all Buon Gusto Farms​ Olive Oil’s & vinegar's in my cooking, and I am happy to report that they are absolutely delicious. I have been using their Extra Virgin Olive Oil on basically everything, including on salads, and to saute chicken and veggies.

In addition to Olive Oil Buon Gusto Farms also produces wonderful vinegar's, on my daily salads I switch between using their champagne pear vinegar and the pomegranate balsamic vinegar. I also recommend the balsamic vinegar for marinading chicken, I mix balsamic vinegar, olive oil, dried thyme, sea salt and red pepper flakes and pour the mixture over a couple bone in chicken breasts in a zip lock bag and let it marinade in the fridge for 3-4 hours before cooking the chicken, it always comes out super delicious.

As I reach out to more and more companies I’m discovering that the smaller, more local companies offer more transparency than the larger brands, and all these smaller brands have been happy to answer my inquiry if peanuts are present in their processing facility. If you’re struggling like I am to find foods that are free of any allergens and free allergen cross contamination your local Farmers Market is a great place to start.

#buongustofarms #oliveoilisnotalwaysoliveoil #peanutfree #farmtotable

#oliveoil #smfms #santamonicafarmersmarket #nopeanutfoods #fa #foodallergy #peanutallergy #crosscontact #nopeanutoliveoil #crosscontamination #peanutcrosscontact #peanutcrosscontamination

#brandtransparency