If you suffer from nut allergies, then you might want to put down that sachet of Santa Maria seasoning and take it back to the store.

The food and agriculture ministry, Fødevarestyrelsen, is encouraging shoppers to return their Santa Maria spices for a refund or to throw them out if they contain the contaminated paprika that is found in many of the company's blends.

Santa Maria, the largest producer of spices in Scandinavia, announced over the weekend that it is recalling two dozen of its seasoning and spice mixes due to the fact that its paprika has traces of almonds in it.

The company said it is “unlikely” that all the recalled products have almond traces, but wants to be “comprehensive” since nut allergies are serious and can be fatal.

Other recalls
Last week, Coop took another product – Sydlandsk Oliven Mix – off its shelves due to almond traces.

And in the UK, there are investigations currently being held into the undeclared use of nuts in spices, especially with cumin, which is experiencing soaring prices globally as India's cumin crops only brought in half their normal yield, causing companies to substitute cheap peanuts and almonds into seasoning mixes.

Click here for a full list of Santa Maria's two dozen recalled spices