Warning: This Clear Bag of Nuts Contains Nuts!

In Britian, bags of nuts contained in a transparent plastic bag so you can see the product were recalled and pulled from shelves because the label did not say the bag contained nuts, according to the Telegraph.

Warning! There may be images of nuts
in this photograph.  

You've got to satisfy those bureaucrats!

It's true that nuts can be very dangerous, even fatal for people with certain allergies, so it's a very good idea to warn people that food in any package might contain nuts.

It's also true the package was labeled "Monkey Nuts" a Britishism for unshelled peanuts, but you can't be too careful! What if somebody didn't know what monkey nuts were, even though any one can see they were peanuts.  But rules are rules.

Britain can be famous for this weird kind of rule making. It's easy to find examples. In one case, a business moved into a new building and were told they must pay a gas bill. There was no gas connection to the building so there couldn't have been any gas usage.

The company was told the only way they could be let off the hook is if they made an emergency call to report a gas leak, which is the only way that would prompt a response and satisfy British Gas there was no gas there, according to DataLite.

In another case, according to the Daily Mail, an employment agency was initially told they couldn't say they were seeking "reliable" and "hard working" people in their ads because that would offend unreliable people.    (The worker who gave that edict was overruled by a supervisor, who said that of course people could seek reliable people to fill jobs)

Britain is certainly not alone in harboring nonsensical bureaucratic edicts. The Telegraph said the European Union tried to prevent bottled water producers from claiming that water prevents dehydration. 

So, watch out for those rules! You might be running afoul of the law by doing common sense things