Woolworths is recalling 12 ice cream and sorbet products that "have potentially been produced in packaging with inconsistent peanut allergen labelling"‚ the company said.

"The labelling ‘product made in a factory which uses peanuts’ provides potentially allergic customers with guidance to make informed buying decisions. This labelling has been omitted from some of these products in error," the retailer said on Tuesday.

"As an absolute precaution‚ Woolworths has taken a decision to rather remove all these products from their store shelves to avoid potentially putting peanut allergic customers at risk."

The 12 affected products are:

• Extremely Creamy Madagascan Vanilla dairy ice cream

• 32 Italian kisses

• Extremely Creamy Pistachio dairy ice cream

• Extremely Creamy Belgian Chocolate dairy ice cream

• Slimmers Choice Fruit Sorbet mini lollies

• 6 mini almond Solos

• 6 mini vanilla Solos

• Mixed Berry sorbet

• Granadilla sorbet

• Mango Sorbet

• Hazelnut dairy ice cream

• Lemon sorbet

No other ice-creams or other products are affected.

The company said: "Customers should please check if they have any of these products without the peanut allergen labelling and return the products to our stores for a full refund."

Most allergic reactions are not life threatening‚ but some can lead to a more severe reaction known as "anaphylaxis"‚ where blood pressure drops abruptly and the airways and throat swell‚ leading to breathing difficulties‚ according to the not-for-profit organisation peanut-institute.org.

About 4% of adults and 4% of children have food allergies‚ with a slightly higher percentage in children under five years old. The institute says that in those who are severely allergic‚ reactions to peanuts can occur from ingesting just a trace amount.

The retailer said: "Woolworths is committed to providing customers with sufficient and accurate product information to make informed product choices. Their product labelling includes an indication to customers that products could potentially contain food allergens‚ not as ingredients‚ but due to unavoidable cross-contact during production."

RDM News Wire