lmashton

I was born in the 60s. I have *always* had allergies, as did my mother, who had allergies going back to her childhood in the 40s. So no, people did have allergies back then. Perhaps fewer people had allergies, or perhaps allergies were underdiagnosed. I don't know. But they did exist.

peasant

There is evidence that allergies have increased over the last 100-120 years. Hypotheses are:

Increased pollution (esp lead)
Increased hygiene (so people aren't 'immunised' against allergens when young)
Or mix of the above.

E.g. children who grow up with dogs are less allergy prone (keeoing young kids squeaky clean with dogs playing with them all the time is hard), but so are children in less polluted environments.

kaka

garnished a CROISSANT?! For breakfast?!

Nicc HK

There have been some major changes to what humans and animals ingest over the years, I have a couple intolerences (fortunately not allergies) and spoken to Doctors regarding avoiding issues.

It seems there are long term concerns about all the unnatural crap being introduced into the food chain thereby causing health issues which never existed before, and because these are relatively recent there is no long term data upon which to assess effects.

Some thoughts:

1. The proliferation of food additives and artificial preservatives.
2. Hormones and antibiotics to stimulate growth. Really bad in China.

Like others I would suggest the OP looks at the root cause through tests which will give a good idea if it was something eaten, and from there work back to what he has consumed.

These days bread and croissants are rarely made fresh, the basic ingredients are put together and packaged up as a dough well in advance, this includes using E280-E283 Calcium Propionates to lengthen shelf life, sodiums, and E472e (Fatty Acids). These doughs are then baked when required.

CorporateTourist

Thanks for all the responses.

The foreign substance in the croissant was confirmed by MPC and the catering company as possibly being tomato concasse - "MPC confirmed that the croissant and foreign substance were not preserved for analysis, but the catering company said it might have been tomato concasse which was made before the batch of croissants. Seems as though they do not clean their machines in between different batches of food."

A tad scary that they don't thoroughly clean their machines, which I think is a food safety issue.

Happy

This still does not explain WHY others on the same flight did not have your reaction, nor the 2nd croissant you bit into, also caused serious reaction.

You may not like what others suggestioning about checking the root cause(s) of your problem because you still think CX is to blame. Yet, if indeed you have had some developing issues such as mild intolerance to certain ingredients, the condition(s) may suddenly flare up and you may wound up in emergency room before you realize what has gone wrong.

My brother in law had very very mild allergy to shrimp and he did not pay much attention about it. One day his sister made a nice dish of shrimp with scramble egg, the very traditional Cantonese dish - he ate a bit too much and then took off for work. He almost collapsed at workplace with shortness of breath, difficulty in speech and very puffy eyes. Luckily his supervisor knew what a serious allergy reaction looked like and rushed him to the nearest hospital which also luckily was less than 10 min away without traffic. The doctor immediately gave him Epinephrine injection and kept him in the emergency room in case he might need a second injection. Very fortunately he recovered shortly after the injection.

My BIL could have died from the severe reaction. Before that all he ever had was very very mild like a small tinge of redness around his mouth and some mild itchiness on his face so he did not pay any attention about it and continued to eat shrimp. Then the sudden flared up reaction almost killed him.

I were you I would go thru the lengthy but very needed tests to try to find the real culprit before it is too late.

sscywong

As many have say, the problem is more likely with you than not.

What makes you think that "they don't thoroughly clean their machine" in between different batches of food presents a food safety issue? With so many croissant baked by CPCS every day, no single one people except YOU has such problem. I'd call the food safe to eat.

If your logic flow, all food products containing peanut has serious food safety problem because there exists people allergic to peanut in the world. From this, we can deduce that no food in the world is safe to eat and we all will die very soon.

I assume that you are an adult. If so please be mature. If not, please consult your parents for next step

1010101

They will clean them but they will not sterilize them, which is common practice and why food products the world over carry warnings about other products made in the same factory.