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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

#191

Post by s1artibartfast »

Miner49er wrote: post #107
infecto wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know honestly. I understand the spirit of it but I also don’t believe a factory should have to be serve markets that it chooses not too. My point which I did not get to very well is that I think the FDA is in a weird spot. I understand their side but I also wonder how a bakery can legally and with the spirit of the law decide to not serve customers with allergies.

It's not forced to serve markets. They are just not allowed to say their products contain sesame when they don't. They are mislabeling their products, and the FDA's job is to ensure products are labeled accurately.

Bust saying they don't is a legal claim that they can be sued or fined for being wrong, and brings extra cost to prove it.

Seems like "may contain trace xxx" is a factual statement if they don't ensure otherwise.

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

#192

Post by flyinprogrammer »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #184
flyinprogrammer wrote: post #182

As a father of a 9 mo old with a sesame allergy found out the hard way with a trip to the ER... not only are we making our own bread now because of this, but also, so should you! Store bread has so much unnecessary crap in it, idk why we didn't do this sooner. It's a bummer that we basically can't eat anyone's baked goods outside of the house now, but hey, I guess the market decided I should keep my money and invest…

This story is about companies erring on the caution and labeling them with things like sesame even if they like don't contain it. The cost of proving it is sesame free and fines if they are wrong are not worth your business.

When companies install a handicap ramp in their business, it also incurs a cost. I don't blame the bread companies for their choice, and I'm in the minority now left with no choice but to boycott, and that's fine, their finance team likely said my dollars don't impact their bottomline, and they're likely correct.

I also understand that a handicap ramp is likely considerably cheaper than retrofitting a manufacturing facility or building new sesame free facilities. It really would have been nice to see an investment from my taxes to lower the cost of this burden to enable new products. Obviously, that isn't going to happen.

My point of also posting was to let you know that you're now also being exposed to sesame flour, kinda without your consent, because they value capital over quality, and that's also their choice, and a choice you're also now participating in.

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

#193

Post by pimlottc »

ipaddr wrote: post #120
bdw5204 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They actually have the Bimbo brand on the soccer jerseys for the Philadelphia Union which probably isn't good for the team's jersey sales.

They sell you a jersey for $300 and still put advertising logos?

All football teams do this.

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

#194

Post by CoastalCoder »

rufus_foreman wrote: post #128
starttoaster wrote: post #31

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…

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 cl…

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

I don't think that's right. You don't necessarily need all 2^n kinds of facilities, because there might not be a commercial demand for products needing every one of those combos.

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

#195

Post by CoastalCoder »

ASalazarMX wrote: post #38
JohnMakin wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is pretty funny, in a really sad way.

At least it gives more certainty than "might contain traces of ", which always leaves you wondering.

New meaning for "Wonder Bread".

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

#196

Post by olalonde »

mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #132
int3 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

even if it were 10%, we shouldn't expect 90% of consumers to subsidize the other 10%

I'm not sure how to separate this mindset from one that would have commercial buildings not be required to include elevators and wheelchair ramps. Do you also think that's an unfair burden to put on the roughly-90% of people who are not mobility-impaired? (Not implying any judgement either way, just curious if this is a consistent viewpoint).

> Do you also think that's an unfair burden to put on the roughly-90% of people who are not mobility-impaired?

Not op, but I share his view and don't think commercial buildings should be forced to accommodate people who are mobility-impaired.

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

#197

Post by CoastalCoder »

llamaimperative wrote: post #21
ganzuul wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's evil.

This is a really counterproductive way to try to understand problems like this. No one is trying to do anything evil. Every step is individually quite reasonable and well within ethical bounds. The issue is that you can produce systems comprised solely of reasonable and ethical decisions that nonetheless yield an outcome that every actor would describe as bad. That is a useful way to interpret this situation and othe…

I agree with the pragmatism of your suggested approach.

But I think it's a stretch to say nobody is being evil or unethical, because there's no consensus about what those entail.

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

#198

Post by maxerickson »

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…

They are saying to play by the spirit of the rules instead of working the ref on the letter of the rules.

But businesses could give a fuck about anything other than their current margin.

Putting it another way, the FDA put forth a regulation intended to make the lives of a certain group of people better, and the response was to figure out how to not bother with that.

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

#199

Post by kgwgk »

donatj wrote: post #126

I mean this sounds like companies are just going to have to start adding allergens to be safe.

"Because it can be difficult and expensive to keep sesame in one part of a baking plant out of another, some companies began adding small amounts of sesame to products that didn't previously contain the ingredient to avoid liability and cost."

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

#200

Post by erik_seaberg »

marshray wrote: post #127
hollerith wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Cross contamination includes stuff like fragments of sesame seeds stuck in a corner of a conveyor belt or air duct since yesterday's production run. I don't think cleanroom baked goods would be affordable.
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