Under consideration PE2178: Introduce mandatory latex labelling for food products sold in Scotland

Background information

Food packaging containing latex, mainly cold seal used in chocolate, ice-cream and biscuits should be labelled. The latex can transfer onto the chocolate, ice-cream and biscuits causing reactions that can be severe. I was told by Cadbury that latex is not included in the 14 allergens so they legally don't need to include it. 1-6% of the population has a latex allergy so we need this information to prevent our allergy getting worse.

The cold seal issue has been known since 2006, but nothing has been done about it. Some companies like Mars use a non latex version. People like me have been having "random" reactions for years and not realised it was the cold seal in Cadbury chocolate. I now know to avoid it but others don't as there is no warning on the packaging. The only way to avoid a latex allergy getting worse is to avoid latex which is impossible if we do not know it could be there.