Added to the duties working dogs are now required to carry out is the onerous task of detecting the source of allergies.

I learned this when an anxious mum asked if I could train the family Labrador to detect peanuts.

She told me the mere presence of nut shell was sufficient to hospitalise her child.

She wanted her dog to enter each classroom before her son to detect the risk level.

It made me wonder about the schools I attended. Pupils used to bring bags of peanuts as part of their packed lunch.

It was a standard treat and I don’t recall any nut related fatalities.

Nevertheless there now appears to be a growing number of foods that create all kinds of unpleasant reactions to our bodies from mild itching to heart disease so it pays to know what you are consuming.

It came of something of a shock to discover via the BBC that more than a fifth of meat sample tests in 2017 found DNA from animals not on the labelling.

Out of 665 results from England, Wales and Northern Ireland collected by the Food Standards Agency, 145 were partly or wholly made up of unspecified meat.

Some samples contained DNA from as many as four different animals, while others contained no trace of the meat that appeared on the product’s label Look, I’m no food snob but I do like to know what I’m eating.

I like to think that my beef wellington contains a fairly hefty portion of err…well beef.

Doesn’t seem much to ask does it?

If I subsequently discovered that my dinner had been a faller in the 3.30pm at Haydock I would not be too pleased.

According to the Food Agency’s report, duck was among the meat contaminated with the DNA of other animals.

Imagine having duck a l’orange served to your table with a set of antlers. Not good.

All right it’s not in the same league as the Japanese fugu fish, which if prepared incorrectly is five times more poisonous than cyanide, but considering our predisposition to food allergies I think we need bolder warning labels.

Should my Peking duck arrive with a damn big sign saying ‘may contain elk’ and I eat it I’ve only got myself to blame when I start steaming at the nostrils.

So, back to the original request…yes I can train a Labrador to detect the presence of peanuts.

What I can’t do is train other kids not to bring peanuts to school.

By Vic Barlow