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FDA warns top U.S. bakery not to claim foods contain allergens when they don't

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Re: FDA warns top U.S. bakery not to claim foods contain allergens when they don't

#121

Post by OJFord »

ASalazarMX wrote: post #101
gumby wrote: post #24

FWIW Bimbo (a Mexican company) is the largest baking company in north america -- when you go to the typical grocery store almost all the baked goods will be from Bimbo regardless of the label ( https://bimbobakeriesusa.com/our-brands )

As a Mexican, I'm still salty with Bimbo because I went to Spain, and they sold there better, bigger Bimbo-brand sliced bread than here, including varieties without crust. It takes guts to keep the brand name in English-speaking contries, though. > The name was formed as the combination of the Disney Bambi and Dumbo films names, which were the favourite movies of Marinela, Lorenzo Servitje's daughter. Later, the foun…

> in China the word for bread (面包, miànbāo) is similar to ['Bimbo']

Err.. ish? About as similar as 'Hacker News' and 'cake her knees', anyway?

Re: FDA warns top U.S. bakery not to claim foods contain allergens when they don't

#122

Post by forgetfreeman »

lpolovets wrote: post #117

My understanding is this allergen over-labeling was inspired by the FDA in the first place. https://www.fastcompany.com/90830854/sesame-seed-allergen-fd... From the linked article (from Jan 2023): But sesame does differ in one distinct way from eggs, peanuts, shellfish, milk, and soy: The seeds are teeny tiny and hard to keep track of. This means they’re prone to “cross-contamination,” in food-allergy terms. If you o…

Eh, this seems like a pretty bullshit argument on the part of manufacturers though. My expectation for a food prep area is that I should be able to safely eat off of any surface. This level of cleanliness should eliminate any contaminants from the environment bigger than airborne dust and given how relatively cheap air filtration equipment is a case could be made there as well. In any case sesame seeds are a hell of alot bigger than dust so there's no great excuse to have them wandering from one product line to another.

Re: FDA warns top U.S. bakery not to claim foods contain allergens when they don't

#123

Post by zackbrown »

Miner49er wrote: post #112
samtho wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Gluten free” is a little different because gluten is a protein not only found in wheat, but also wheat derivatives like spelt, semolina, graham, and other grains like barley, rye, and malt. This is different from a wheat allergy, in fact, its also not an “allergen” in the same way that peanuts are (digestive problems vs anaphylaxis), and would probably be better classified as an intolerance similar to lactose (which…

Gluten is an allergen for people with celiac, just not IgE-mediated. Celiac shouldn't be classified with lactose intolerance, it's much more serious, arguably more dangerous then even IgE-mediated allergies.

^ This is correct.

> (digestive problems vs anaphylaxis) ... and would probably be better classified as an intolerance similar to lactose

is misinformation — "digestive problems" and "intolerance" drastically understate the seriousness of celiac disease, and contribute to the educational challenges surrounding the condition.

The chronic impact of gluten exposure to a celiac patient include: permanent damage to the small intestine, malnutrition, reduction of lifespan, and significantly increased risk of comorbid autoimmune diseases (MS, diabetes, and more) and cancer.

The acute symptoms span from gastrointestinal symptoms to neurological issues, systemic pain, and cognitive impairment. The reason for all of this is gluten causes the celiac patient's immune system to mobilize and attack the patient, i.e. "autoimmunity." Not anaphylactic, correct, but not a digestive problem nor an intolerance.

Re: FDA warns top U.S. bakery not to claim foods contain allergens when they don't

#124

Post by Aloisius »

nonameiguess wrote: post #56
brookst wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

California proposition 65 is the classic example. Since it requires buildings to warn visitors if they contain cancer-causing substances, and since no landlord can possibly know every substance that even tenant or visitor might have, every building has a "this building may or may not contain cancer-causing substances" placard. It's surreal and awesome.

The problems with Prop 65 go beyond that. The legislation itself effectively made no attempt to define what it means for something to cause cancer. The commission put in charge of enforcement ultimately decided it would mean anything that current scientific evidence suggests has a 1 in 100,000 risk of eventually causing cancer if you are exposed to it for an entire lifetime. Subsequent lawsuits clarified that a subst…

My favorite part of prop 65 is they decided on a level of a warning when something was above one thousandth (1/1000) of the no observable effect level for anything that can cause birth defects or reproductive harm.

This caused a problem when they added Vitamin A to the list of chemicals known to cause reproductive harm since one thousandth of the no effect level is far below the RDA for pregnant women.

Re: FDA warns top U.S. bakery not to claim foods contain allergens when they don't

#125

Post by forgetfreeman »

umvi wrote: post #34

At this point it seems like it might be more effective to mandate the opposite: labels that indicate that the product is allergen free for X class of allergen. That way the default (no label) = might contain allergens, and the presence of the label guarantees your safety. Companies that take allergen cross contamination seriously can tout the label (and win the business of the allergic), companies that don't won't re…

This position makes perfect sense in a setting where there's broad competition and incumbents that put quality of product ahead of shareholder value. I don't feel like current market conditions meet either of those criteria so you'd in effect just be giving manufacturers an out at the expense of folks with allergies.

Re: FDA warns top U.S. bakery not to claim foods contain allergens when they don't

#127

Post by marshray »

hollerith wrote: post #40
utensil4778 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is about sesame. Last year or so, the FDA changed the rules about sesame as an allergen. Some bakeries then decided to just slap "may contain traces of sesame" on everything so they didn't have to pay the cost of actually ensuring there's no cross-contamination. This has significantly harmed consumers who are actually allergic to sesame. Now there's effectively no way to know if a baked product will actually con…

>Now there's effectively no way to know if a baked product will actually contain sesame You are catastrophizing. It remains the case that any baked product that doesn't have "may contain traces of sesame" on the label must by law be free of traces of sesame. And if no producer chooses to produce such a product, then it is because the number of people who want it is quite small (or the costs of complying with regulati…

No one wins by some percentage of the population having to bake their own bread.

If these facilities cannot keep unwanted visible particulates like sesame out of their products, how can they keep dirt and bacteria out?

This regulation is not only good for people allergic to sesame, it's a brown M&M test. I see value in it.

Re: FDA warns top U.S. bakery not to claim foods contain allergens when they don't

#128

Post by rufus_foreman »

starttoaster wrote: post #31
lylejantzi3rd wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's closer to: FDA orders bakers to list allergens. There are stiff penalties if you are allergenic but don't list the allergen. So? Bakers look at their production processes and determine there's a chance that enough allergens get into the product due to cross contamination to list it on the label, just in case. FDA doesn't like it. They expect the bakers to fix their cross-contamination issues at great expense to…

It's closer to: FDA orders bakers to list allergens. There are stiff penalties if you are allergenic but don't list the allergen. So? Bakers look at their production processes and determine there's a chance that enough allergens get into the product due to cross contamination to list it on the label, just in case. FDA doesn't like it. They expect the bakers to fix their cross-contamination issues at great expense to…

The only way to fix cross-contamination issues is to have a different production facility for every possible combination of allergens.

Which is insane.

I worked in a factory that packaged food, if one product contained an allergen, there was no way you could guarantee that a tiny amount of that allergen wouldn't get into some amount of the next product on that production line. No way. Not any possible way. You can clean all you want, you can do whatever you want, you can mandate whatever procedures you want, but there's just no way. Even if every half-awake half-sober completely uncaring third shift production worker (like 1990's era me) does everything exactly right, which they won't, even if they actually cared to, which they won't.

The FDA is putting manufacturers in an impossible position, and it's insane.

I have food allergies, believe me, I get it. But there's just no way. If a manufacturing facility produces products with tree nuts, someone with an allergy to tree nuts has to treat every product produced in or near that facility as though it contains tree nuts. That's reality.

The FDA is not dealing with reality. The problem here is the US federal government.

Re: FDA warns top U.S. bakery not to claim foods contain allergens when they don't

#129

Post by kortilla »

forgetfreeman wrote: post #122
lpolovets wrote: post #117

My understanding is this allergen over-labeling was inspired by the FDA in the first place. https://www.fastcompany.com/90830854/sesame-seed-allergen-fd... From the linked article (from Jan 2023): But sesame does differ in one distinct way from eggs, peanuts, shellfish, milk, and soy: The seeds are teeny tiny and hard to keep track of. This means they’re prone to “cross-contamination,” in food-allergy terms. If you o…

Eh, this seems like a pretty bullshit argument on the part of manufacturers though. My expectation for a food prep area is that I should be able to safely eat off of any surface. This level of cleanliness should eliminate any contaminants from the environment bigger than airborne dust and given how relatively cheap air filtration equipment is a case could be made there as well. In any case sesame seeds are a hell of…

Pre-baked grain is not handled with those standards

Re: FDA warns top U.S. bakery not to claim foods contain allergens when they don't

#130

Post by spaceguillotine »

Having allergies in the USA is already hell thanks to the media, so many people will think you're full of it but no really i'll be bed ridden for a day with nausea and a migraine, which means i just never go out to eat now due to the awkwardness of explaining it all.
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