Can You Eat Pesto If You Have A Nut Allergy?

If you have ever had an allergic reaction to peanuts, tree nuts, or seeds, you need to tread very carefully when eating pesto. Always read the label, and don't just assume that it all contains pine nuts because some producers substitute them for cheaper alternatives.

Classic basil pesto contains pine nuts, which, despite their name, are, in fact, seeds. A small number of people have reported allergic reactions to them, but far more common are peanut or tree nut allergies. Allergy sufferers mustn't just blindly assume that the pesto they eat will have been made with pine nuts. More and more shop-bought pesto sauces have had the pine nuts switched for other nuts.

It's common in Italy to use walnuts instead of pine nuts, while the Sicilians prefer their beloved almonds. Of course, they do this for taste, but they are also used because walnuts are a lot cheaper than the super-expensive European pine nuts.

Some producers have tried to cut corners by using the cheaper pine nut variety from China. However, some diners report what has become known as "pine mouth" (or "pine nut syndrome"), where an unpleasant, metallic taste lingers for days or even weeks. Scientists haven't yet been able to conclude precisely why pine mouth happens. Although they stopped short of defining it as an allergic reaction, they believed it was a form of food hypersensitivity that affected some people.

In other cost-saving measures, some large pesto companies have ditched pine nuts and replaced them with much cheaper cashews or peanuts. Others have removed nuts altogether from their pesto, not necessarily because of costs but because a growing number of people are reporting nut allergies, and they want to appeal to the broadest market possible.