Florida brewery faces backlash for its 'Epi Pen' peanut-flavoured beer

A brewery in Florida is fac‐ ing backlash over its peanut-flavoured beer. Not because of the ingredients or the flavour, but because of its name: Epi Pen Peanut Butter Ale.

"Peanut butter week starts today," an employee of Playalinda Brewing Company in Titusville, Fla., says in an Instagram reel posted five days ago. In the video, he leans on a case of Epi Pen beer.

EpiPen is the trade name for a type of auto-injector used by people with severe allergies - such as peanuts during an anaphylactic reac‐ tion, which can be deadly. It's estimated that about six per cent of Canadian children and three-to-four per cent of

Canadian adults have food allergies, according to Health Canada. Peanuts are one of the most common allergens.

Earlier this year, a dancer with a severe peanut allergy died after eating an incor‐ rectly labelled cookie in New

York City, even after using her EpiPen. Last October, a doctor with severe nut and dairy allergies died after eat‐ ing at a Disney Springs restaurant in Disney World, also after using her EpiPen.

Playalinda Brewing Com‐ pany could not immediately be reached for comment.

They're not the first com‐ pany to come under fire for making light of food allergies. Earlier this year, Uber Eats removed a scene from its Su‐ per Bowl ad that depicted a man having an allergic reac‐ tion to peanut butter, follow‐ ing backlash from some con‐ sumers and food allergy ad‐ vocates.

"These kind of actions alienate individuals with food allergy. But the real harm is the fact that it's reducing the perception of the serious‐ ness of life-threatening food allergy with the broader com‐ munity," Jennifer Gerdts, the executive director of Food Al‐ lergy Canada, told CBC News.

"It's basically reinforcing that it's OK to make fun of a potentially life-threatening condition."

Making light of allergies common, potentially dan‐ gerous

Playalinda Brewing Com‐ pany's posts about its Peanut Butter Week and Epi Pen ale appear to go back several years. While the beer isn't currently listed on its website and at least one Facebook post promoting it appears to have been taken down, its online Peanut Butter Week menu still listed Epi Pen Peanut Butter ale as its top beer as of Wednesday morn‐ ing.

"I get the world will have peanut butter liquor and beers - one of my greatest fears with my son going off to college next year - but naming a beer 'Epi-Pen' is in‐ appropriate at best - encour‐ aging humour which often leads to those with allergies being treated poorly or laughed at," Lianne Mandel‐ baum, who runs the website The No-Nut Traveler, wrote in a Facebook post over the weekend.

"Calling a beer 'Epi-Pen,' especially if it's peanutflavoured, is absurd and in‐ sensitive. It downplays the life-saving role of EpiPens," the Elijah-Alavi Foundation wrote in a post on X. The foundation is run by the family of Elijah Silvera, a three-year-old boy who died of an allergic reaction to a dairy product in 2017.

"In settings like college, this kind of humour harms more than it amuses, eroding empathy for those with lifethreatening allergic condi‐ tions," the post continued.

Food allergies are often the butt of jokes in media and movies. For instance, the 2022 film Puss in Boots: The Last Wish depicts the cat los‐ ing one of its nine lives to a shellfish allergy.

The comedy Monster-inLaw shows Jennifer Lopez's character have a severe reac‐ tion to almonds after her mother-in-law sneaks them into her meal the night be‐ fore the wedding.

And people are often vic‐ tims of allergy bullying, where they are sometimes exposed to their allergens. A case in Texas recently made headlines after a football player's teammates filled his locker with peanuts, knowing he was allergic to them.

Research shows that mak‐ ing fun of any medical condi‐ tion is dangerous because it diminishes its perceived seri‐ ousness, Gerdt said. And the allergy community relies on having an informed commu‐ nity to support navigating safe food choices and avoid having potentially life-threat‐ ening reactions.

"Sometimes people will say, 'Can't you take a joke?' I get it, but when you look at the broader implications around the community tak‐ ing it less seriously, that is counter to what the commu‐ nity needs."

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