Flying with food allergies can be tricky, and most passengers probably don’t think twice about what snacks they’re eating on a plane. That is, until a flight attendant makes an announcement about it.
But what happens when you’ve already finished eating your peanut butter snack and then find out someone on your flight has a severe airborne peanut allergy?
One Chicago woman found herself in exactly that awkward situation. Her mortified reaction has the internet debating who’s actually at fault here.
Woman Accidentally Eats Peanut Product
Arianna (@ariannaviolett) shared the moment she realized she’d potentially put another passenger at risk completely by accident. Her TikTok earned more than 891,000 views.
“The flight attendant just made an announcement not to eat any peanut products during the flight because someone on the flight has an airborne allergy to peanuts,” the text overlay on the video reads.
But Arianna had already eaten an entire Smuckers Uncrustable, which contains peanut butter, before the announcement was made.
“In my defense, the peanut allergy was announced after I already ate the Uncrustables, but now I feel really bad,” she wrote in the caption.
The timing left Arianna in an uncomfortable position. She couldn’t undo what she’d already eaten. However, knowing someone on the plane could potentially have a reaction to airborne peanut particles clearly weighed on her conscience.
It seems the person ended up being OK; otherwise, she would have probably posted a follow-up video about the situation.
Can You Really Be Allergic to Airborne Food Particles?
While most food allergies are triggered by actually eating the food, airborne food allergies are real. However, not as common or typically as severe as people may think.
According to Verywell Health, airborne food allergens can be produced during food preparation, cooking, and in food processing facilities. When someone with a food allergy is exposed to these airborne particles, they may experience symptoms like a runny nose, itchy eyes, or wheezing. However, these airborne reactions don’t usually cause life-threatening anaphylaxis.
The exception is people with asthma who may be more prone to serious breathing problems from food allergens floating in the air.
Peanuts are one of the most common foods that cause allergic reactions, along with eggs, fish, and shellfish. The proteins in these foods can become airborne when they’re being prepared or eaten, potentially triggering reactions in nearby people with severe allergies.
That said, simply eating a peanut butter sandwich next to someone with a peanut allergy is unlikely to cause a severe reaction in most cases. The concentration of airborne particles from casual eating is typically much lower than what’s produced during cooking or food processing.
What Happens if Someone Has a Medical Emergency on a Plane?
Flight crews are trained to handle medical emergencies. However, the process involves a lot more coordination than most passengers realize, Healthline reported.
When a medical emergency occurs, the flight crew measures vitals and contacts ground-based medical support for guidance. They’re trained in CPR and can administer lifesaving medications and equipment from emergency kits.
The Federal Aviation Administration requires that these kits contain specific equipment and medications. This includes aspirin, oxygen, medications to raise blood pressure, and equipment for intravenous administration.
Flight attendants may also ask if there are any medical professionals on board who can help. The Aviation Medical Assistance Act (basically a Good Samaritan law) protects passenger volunteers from liability if they step in to assist.
Now deciding whether to divert the plane is complicated.
Dr. Eric Stahl, a cardiologist at Staten Island University Hospital, told Healthline that while the flight crew and medical volunteers can offer recommendations, the final call to divert the aircraft comes down to the pilot and flight dispatcher.
It can take about 30 minutes to land from cruising altitude. Plus, they have to weigh the severity of the emergency against other factors.
Airlines Don’t Actually Carry EpiPens
Here’s the alarming part for anyone with severe allergies: U.S. airlines are not currently required to carry EpiPens, the easy-to-use epinephrine autoinjectors that treat anaphylaxis.
According to STAT News, planes do carry epinephrine. However, only in glass vials that require medical knowledge and multiple time-consuming steps to administer safely.
Dr. Lindsey Ulin learned this the hard way when she experienced anaphylaxis on a flight in March 2023. She wrote for STAT News that neither the airplane’s emergency medical kit nor any passenger had an EpiPen.
The kit had a glass vial of epinephrine, but without someone trained to safely administer it with a syringe, it was useless. She survived only because another physician happened to be on her flight and knew how to use the vial.
Anyone can use an EpiPen—it takes less than 10 seconds and commonly comes with instructions. But the glass vials require medical expertise that most passengers and even flight attendants don’t have.
The FAA has even granted exemptions allowing planes to fly without complete emergency medical kits since 2016, sometimes with no epinephrine at all.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to money.
A glass vial of epinephrine retails for about $5. While an EpiPen can cost up to a couple of hundred dollars.
Viewers are divided
“Yall talking about its common knowledge not to bring peanuts on a plane, but I’ve literally had them hand me snack packs of peanuts before,” a top comment read.
“Imagine being taken out by an uncrustable,” a person half-joked.
“I feel like passengers should have been warned before they boarded,” another pointed out.
“I feel like there needs to be a way to communicate this prior to everyone already being seated. Technology can do so many things and you’re telling me we can’t send a warning to passengers to not bring them on at all?” a commenter reasoned.
@ariannaviolett In my defense the #peanutallergy ♬ original sound – †
The Mary Sue reached out to Arianna for comment via Instagram and TikTok direct message.
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