Because the new food labeling law requires that all allergens be listed ... and because some companies in the food industry believe that they cannot adequately clean their equipment to guarantee that the equipment is free of sesame ... and because a company can't label a product as containing sesame if it doesn't contain sesame ... some companies are ADDING sesame flour to products so that they can label those products as containing sesame.

https://www.washingtonpost.com...gy-law-consequences/

1984

Usually I see statements like "This product is manufactured in a facility that also processes [allergens]" and "May contain trace amounts of [allergens]."

This new thing seems to be confined to sesame only.

"This new thing seems to be confined to sesame only."

But why? I would think the same issues apply in spades to peanuts.

From an AP article:

quote:

Food industry experts said the requirements are so stringent that many manufacturers, especially bakers, find it simpler and less expensive to add sesame to a product — and to label it — than to try to keep it away from other foods or equipment with sesame.

quote:

Bob Huebner, food safety/quality assurance manager for Pan-O-Gold, told Fitzgerald in a string of emails that the company was forced to add sesame to the product and the label.

“The unfortunate reality is that our equipment and bakeries are not setup for allergen cleanings that would be required to prevent sesame cross-contamination and was not an option for us,” Huebner wrote in an email to Fitzgerald. Huebner replied to an email from the AP but did not respond to questions about the company’s practices.

quote:

Some large companies previously have added other allergens to products and updated their labels. In 2016, Kellogg’s added traces of peanut flour to some cookies and crackers, prompting protests.

https://apnews.com/article/ses...6f2a19d87b03440848f1

From the article:

“Congress in 2004 created labeling requirements for eight: milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat and soybeans.”

and also:

“Some companies include statements on labels that say a food “may contain” a certain product or that the food is “produced in a facility” that also uses certain allergens. However, such statements are voluntary, not required, according to the FDA, and they do not absolve the company of requirements to prevent cross-contamination.”

So why is sesame treated differently? If I read that the facility might be contaminated, I wouldn’t buy the product if I had an allergy. The same for the other allergens.

I wouldn’t give my mom-in-law something that may be contaminated with wheat, because she has celiac disease. I read the labels to make sure. But that doesn’t mean a company should add wheat to their product to make sure I don’t use it.

It's just one strategy for dealing with the regulations and is a better bet than a warning about the facility. Some people could roll the dice thinking it would not be contaminated, be wrong and the company might still get sued. Having the ingredient in the food is better protection and cannot be misjudged.

The price of a litigious society.

What Mik said.

Formulas/recipes change. There can never be the promise that we'll always be able to eat a commercially prepared product we've eaten before.

True story -- a friend had been feeding a particular brand of kibble to her dog for years and pooch never had a problem. All of a sudden the dog started having digestive issues. My friend thought maybe the bag of food was bad, so she called the manufacturer. Turned out it was a "new formula", but they wouldn't/couldn't tell her what had changed. Of course she switched to something else, but it highlights the problem of a food manufacturer making a change to the recipe not resulting in a useful/meaningful alert to the consumer.

Part of the problem is how to alert the allergy people that a change has occurred. Do we require labeling on the front that says "Ingredient change, new allergen now included!" How do restaurants handle it?

What I'm wondering is why food allergies are on the upswing. What are we doing that's causing it? The foods we eat? How we prepare them? Are we eating stuff our ancestors weren't exposed to and discovering it's food we're not equipped to process?

quote:

equipped to process?

I'm guessing that that "processed" word is pretty high up on the differential of causes.

It could be avoided by my soon to be patented Dumbass Doctrine Case Filter. If you present your case to this board and the majority respond with, "Dumbass, what'd you do THAT for?" your case is dismissed with prejudice.