Complaints help solve ‘pine mouth’ mystery

I always ate pinenuts and for no reason haven’t eaten them for over three years. In this time I was treated for bowel cancer and had chemotheropy. Last week I bought some pinenuts (origin China ) sprinkled them over my salad, which I have to say were delicious (my husband had them also) but within twenty four hours a bitter taste arrived and has been with me for four days so far, not so my husband. I wondered if the effects of the chemo on my mouth ( and there were a lot ) has perhaps caused this in my case, as I did eat them a lot before with no problems, but I wouldnt have know the origins of those.

Well the bitter taste finally went 5 days after I had last eaten the inedible nuts. I had no reply from Holland & Barrett after the initial acknowledgement over a week ago so I chased, and still no reply. I hadn’t planned on ever shopping there again anyway but I shall be sure to tell everyone I know how little they care for their customers’ health. It would be good if someone with a bit more media power than me could go after some of these shops – there’s only so much I can do on twitter.

I thought fellow sufferers might like to read the reply I had from Pizza Express after I emailed them to ask where they source their pine nuts from.

Thank you for your enquiry into PizzaExpress. I would like to reassure you that PizzaExpress is very aware of the ‘pine mouth’ phenomenon and are fully committed to working with our suppliers in
any developments regarding the causes of taste disturbances and will follow any worldwide recommendations, codes or practices issued as a result of continued research into the potential cause of this.

At present because it has been hypothesized that the bitter taste is due to imported pinenuts from China, which started from what was thought to be inedible species of pine nuts entering the food chain, we are currently sourcing our loose pinenuts and those used in our pesto from Korea, where
they are packed in the UK.

Our Pollo Pesto retail pizza contains a pesto which is free from pinenuts and the pinenuts going into the Pesto Genovese are from Italy.

I hope you find this information useful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again should you have any further enquiries.

Kind Regards
Natalie Rowe
Food Technical Manager

Holland and Barrett have finally (some 2 weeks later) replied, here’s an extract:

“It is therefore disappointing to learn of the aftertaste which you have been experiencing. We are aware that Pine Nuts can affect some individuals and I can advise that the FSA (Food Standards Authority) is aware of this issue and currently investigating the cause of this phenomenon. At the time of writing there is no conclusive explanation for this and ‘Pine Nut Syndrome’ seems to affect individual people but does not seem to be linked to a quality issue with the actual nuts.”

That’s not actually what the FSA said to me, they said “…At present it is thought that this phenomenon might be due to the pine nuts exported from China becoming mixed with non-edible species of pine nut.”

Which is a quality control issue.

H&B failed to answer my questions about whether they get their nuts from China and whether they use an FSA approved supplier. They did say something about adhering to manufacturing practices but I was unaware that the nuts were manufactured.

They offered an unspecified amount in vouchers (intended to reimburse for the pine nuts so it won’t be much) that I have to ring an 0844 number to claim! They really have no idea about customer service. I have replied and asked for (non voucher) compensation and emphasised that I had stomach cramps for 4 days but I know I won’t get anywhere with them, since I am now an ex customer there’s no incentive to placate me.

I will leave this thread to the pine nut mouth discussion now.

Ive been adding nuts to my breakfast cereal recently, and about a day later i kept getting a horrible taste in my mouth which i couldnt work out what it could be. after about 2 days of this i looked it up on google and came across pine mouth. it suddenly clicked that i had been eating pine nuts!! that was the problem. i searched and searched on how to get rid of the taste as i go on holiday tomorrow and want to be able to enjoy the food without the horrible taste. There seems to be no definate solutions. i did come across a site which explained that something from the pine nuts affects your taste buds. still searching and searching for a cure, my boyfriend had made me a sausage cob, i added a lot of brown sauce in the hope this would cleanse my tongue (everyone knows what brown sauce can do to a dirty coin so i thought the same would apply lol) whilst eating the cob my taste seemed to return. i thought i would wait until this morning to see if it was still the same, the sour taste seems to have faded A LOT. So for lunch im gonna have another cob with a dose of brown sauce 🙂 and hopefully i will be back to normal.

I had what turned out to be pine mouth three times between Summer 2010 and Spring 2011 having consumed ASDA pots of Sea Salt & Pepper Almonds and Seeds (which includes almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, pine nuts and hemp seeds). I can only describe it as being a very metallic taste that developed a day or so after eating the produce and lasted for about 5 days. No amount of teeth brushing, mouthwash or strongly flavoured foods would mask it for more than a couple of seconds – in fact it would sometimes make it seem worse.

I bought pine nuts from telco which are imported from china and having had them on a salad I am now suffering from pine mouth

I bought the Neal’s Yard Salad Sprinkle in Holland&Barret 5 days ago, the horrible taste started next day and didn’t go away with anything, getting a little better the following days and today almost gone (hopefully for good!). No other simptoms. I was starting to be really worried when I found this conversation, tks so much for all the links and explanations, all more clear now! It’s been going on for a couple of years now and never heard about it before, and nothing is been done as is still happening! The seeds pack says “Packed in UK”, not a word where the seeds come from. Isn’t it compulsory to mention that?
I’ll email H&B and the toxicology link and let you know how it goes

I found a document from the Food Standars Agency from 30 Jun 2011 about this, updating its advise to local authorities and requesting that every consumer complaint about “pine mouth” must be investigated and the business selling the illegal pine nuts, not fit for human consumption, must withdrawal them from the market. Maybe results, after 2 years of nothing being done!

http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/enforcement/enfe11023.pdf

I have always eaten pine nuts and never had a problem until last Monday. I bought them from my local store in Isleworth. The brand of the pine nuts is called Toory Fruity but i cant ascertain where the nuts are originally from.

The awful bitter taste started yesterday (the day after i ate them) and today is has been worse – i cant really eat anything as it tastes foul and metallic. I even thought i had a mouth infection as i could not un derstand where the taste came from until i found a post on the net.

I have reported the case to the toxicology food standard: toxicology@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk.
i hope my taste will come back. this is so awful and quite scary.

P.

Up until a few weeks ago I had never had a problem eating pine nuts, however am now suffering for a second time (with a months interval of not eating any pine nuts) with a terrible bitter taste & soreness on my tongue/inside of my mouth. I can’t remember where the first pack of nuts were purchased as I binned them thinking they were bad. I purchased this second pack from Tesco (origin China) and after eating a small handful the symptoms started after a couple of days. There’s no way I’m going to eat any more of them cos it’s making me miserable !! It’s such a shame cos I love sprinkling them over pasta, yellow pepper, cherry toms with parmesan ..yummm !

Well, mystery solved! Here was me thinking it might be hormone related or something, so I googled that horrible taste in my mouth and made the link to the Chinese pine nuts I ate yesterday and the day before. I have written a complaint to Tesco and contacted the FSA also, and now I just have to sit and hope the taste doesn’t linger too long :o(

We have the pine mouth problem in Australia too!! At least I know what it is now! The whole area of food handling and safety for consumers is a worry. Companies seem not to care. Thank goodness for sights and blogs like this!!

Here it is 2016 and my adult son and I have both had pine nut syndrome after each eating a handful of pine nuts we bought at our local Vancouver, WA WINCO. The symptoms took about 36 hours to hit us and lasted 7-8 days. My son’s fiancé, who ate about 10 pine nuts was unaffected. Even water tasted horrible. The 3rd day was the very worst. I felt like I couldn’t breathe the bitter taste was so strong and far down my throat. I contacted the FDA. A very nice woman interviewed me as to the details of our experience. She said that WINCO had been contacted repeatedly by the FDA but continues to sell these nuts from China without any warning. We got them from the bulk food area. She also said it is a very random sort of attack with various people having eaten the same pesto, for instance, and only some experiencing symptoms. There are undoubtedly genetics involved. It is disconcerting to think that something , some chemical, used to process the nuts could be at fault. I will be watching for some answer! I cannot believe these white Chinese pine nuts continue to be sold without knowing exactly what causes this pine nut syndrome! Another reason to buy local.