Sensitive individuals need to educate themselves on all forms of peanuts so they can carefully avoid problem foods. Common foods and ingredients that contain threatening peanut proteins include:

• Peanut butter
• Cold-pressed or expressed peanut oil
• Peanut flour
• Hydrolyzed plant protein
• Hydrolyzed vegetable protein
• Groundnuts
• Earthnuts
• Monkey nuts
• Mixed nuts
• Arachis oil
• Groundnut oil
• Natural flavoring

Peanuts are included in many types of food that seem unlikely to have peanuts as an ingredient. Foods and products that very often contain hidden peanut products include:

• Breakfast cereals
• Biscuits
• Pastries
• Cookies
• Crackers
• Ice cream
• Desserts
• Cereal bars
• Nutrition and energy bars
• Curry or satay sauces
• Candies
• Salad dressings
• Chinese, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican and African dishes
• Vegetarian dishes
• Marzipan
• Soups
• Topical ointments

People with peanut allergies should also avoid foods that list artificial nuts as an ingredient. These may be peanuts that have been deflavored and reflavored to taste like a tree nut. For instance, mandelonas are peanuts that have been soaked in almond flavoring.

Some people are very responsive to even trace amounts of peanut proteins. In these individuals, even touching another person who has recently consumed peanuts can bring on a reaction. These sensitive individuals must be very careful not to have skin contact with any type of peanut product and should also be careful not to inhale the fumes produced by cooking peanuts. Inhaled peanut fumes can cause symptoms associated with allergic rhinitis (hay fever) in some individuals.

In some cases, food packaging may include a statement that the food was processed on equipment that also processes foods containing peanuts. However, this statement is not required to appear on food labels by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. When in doubt about a product's ingredients, consumers are encouraged to contact the manufacturer.