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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

#291

Post by stoperaticless »

jjmarr wrote: post #115
Molitor5901 wrote: post #15

This seems like splitting hairs on the part of the FDA. FDA officials acknowledged Tuesday that statements that a product “may contain” certain allergens “could be considered truthful and not misleading.” Bimbo officials have until July 8 to identify steps taken to remedy the issue — or to explain why the labeling doesn't violate FDA standards. So a baker.. who adds (insert allergy ingredient here), in minute quantit…

America has decided that able-bodied consumers should subsidize people with disabilities; companies are generally expected to make their products accessible even if there's not enough market demand for that to be profitable . Food allergies are a disability. Some people with food allergies cannot consume sesame. If you're a baker selling bread where sesame is not an ingredient, slapping "this product may contain sesa…

What world do you foresee?

A world where sesame is banned from food industry?

If no (which I assume), then what is the proposal?

“No contaminants” does not seem realistic even in a cleanroom.

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

#292

Post by VBprogrammer »

tracker1 wrote: post #63
VBprogrammer wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The driver should be to give people with allergies the information they need to know whether they can eat something safely. Allowing companies to list every possible contaminant regardless of how likely it is to be in a product doesn't help anyone. It just leads to the "contents may be hot" problem on a coffee.

Well... the FDA won't allow companies to just list "may contain" for sesame, they have to have effectively multiple plants in complete isolation, or... add a tiny bit of sesame to everything and affirmatively state so. In this case, I prefer the "may contain" verbiage... saying something "does not contain" is a practical minefield. If you're that sensitive to something, find a producer that makes what you're asking f…

> If you're that sensitive to something, find a producer that makes what you're asking for, or if you can tolerate a small amount, or make your own food from basic ingredients.

The group of people for whom "we take proper control of allergens" is a selling point is a very small one. One of the reasons government exist is to protect people who's interests would not be commercially viable - regulating that building are accessible with a wheelchair etc. Proper allergen control is the cost of doing business in that industry, attempting to blatantly side step regulation should be met with investigation and fines which make doing the right thing the cheaper option.

The idea that someone with an allergy should make all of their own food from basic ingredients is comically naive. Essentially ostracizing them from all social events where food is involved.

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

#293

Post by kalleboo »

jjallen wrote: post #247
betaby wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. That market is too small to target. Overregulation is affecting consumer choices.

It’s over regulation to everyone who doesn’t have sesame allergies. It’s lifesaving to those that do. Somehow bakeries in Switzerland are doing just fine with sesame being a declared allergen and keeping them separate but American ones just can’t be bothered to handle a life threatening ingredient thoroughly carefully.

https://www.coop.ch/en/brands-inspiration/diet/intolerances/...

> In Switzerland, there are also the following rules regarding trace allergens when declaring allergens: in the event of possible contamination of more than one gram per kilogram of food, the note "May contain traces of ..." must be included. The limit for sulphur is 10 milligrams per kilogram and for gluten 200 milligrams

It sounds like Switzerland does the same thing the US used to do where manufactures have a lazy cop-out? It doesn't sound any stricter at all.

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

#294

Post by jimbob45 »

lisper wrote: post #210
moregrist wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a parent of a child with a severe sesame allergy, you clearly don’t understand food allergies and how severe they can be. If my child ingests sesame, they go into anaphylactic shock and without an epipen administered in minutes they will die. There are definitely questions of how to best inform consumers that have severe food allergies. But I’ve been really underwhelmed with the dialog here on this. It would be lo…

> If my child ingests sesame, they go into anaphylactic shock and without an epipen administered in minutes they will die. Please excuse my skepticism, I am asking this out of a genuine desire to become better informed: how can you possibly know this? Unless you happened to have an epi-pen handy the first time your kid ever ate a sesame seed, which seems unlikely, then if this were true would not your kid have died t…

There are kits now with allergens that you can feed your kid to test for this kind of thing[0]. The idea is that you have them eat it in the parking lot of a hospital and see what happens.

[0]https://readysetfood.com/products/stage-1-2-bottle-mix-in

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

#295

Post by stoperaticless »

zackbrown wrote: post #123
Miner49er wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 sm…

Did I understand it correctly?

- Single meal will not kill you.

- Continuous use will shorten your life significantly.

(Something like smoking then?)

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

#296

Post by aiauthoritydev »

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…

The safest thing to do is to actually add the allergens to some degree and then warn people.

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

#297

Post by aiauthoritydev »

kevinventullo wrote: post #156
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…

Doesn’t this open up the market for a newcomer to make verified sesame-free bread?

Yes it does. It also good for the people with allergies as they can confidently buy that bread.

When FDA declares a new allergen, the top lawyer of the company that has presence from NY to SF seats down with the CEO, they then ask all the manufacturing units to do an audit of the said allergen use and then hire a third party auditor to verify if the allergen is used at all not just at their retail locations but in the entire supply chain. This involves the place where wheat is harvested to the restaurant where the bread is served. For a large company this is a millions of dollars and several quarters of project.

The lawyer and CEO needs to chalk out the plan. If they want to make sure their bread does not contain the said allergen they have to update all their processes right from where they buy their wheat to where they test their bread for the said allergen and retrain their staff, suppliers, QA etc. this adds millions of dollars in additional expenses per year.

Not only all this is complex that makes the bread expensive for EVERYONE, it is also much more prone to error.

It is much easier for your small local company to provide sesame free bread at slightly higher price to those who need it. You wont get it in the middle of death valley but that is fine.

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

#298

Post by nox101 »

sangnoir wrote: post #269
BurningFrog wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to judge over-regulation as it relates to society as a whole.

What are your thoughts on mandatory wheelchair ramps, fire extinguishers or AED machines? Most of society won't make use of those either.

I think like everything, there's good and bad. You didn't translate your previous comment into braille so should I sue you for not catering to the needs of my blind mother?

Having wheelchair ramps at corners, especially new ones, big chains, large institutions, seems great. Forcing the new 1 person boutique down the street to spend $250k+ to add every possible accommodation for language and accessibility, doesn't seem so great.

There are tons of stories of effective extortion over "accessibility" issues

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

#299

Post by stoperaticless »

autoexec wrote: post #82
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very odd take to me given the focus of the article is that companies are explicitly saying "If you have severe allergies, don't buy this product", but the FDA is saying this isn't good enough. That is, the whole focus of the article is that these companies don't want to sell to consumers who may have severe allergies. Honestly, I side with the companies on this one. It's just a matter of incentives - if the…

I agree that the FDA got this one wrong and it's just better to have companies add the allergen than just put on a "maybe" label. The problem with making it okay to just put a "this may or may not kill you" label on products is that more and more companies will do it just to shield themselves from liability regardless of what is in their foods (it's cheaper to add a label and not add an unnecessary ingredient than to…

I foresee a business that produces “all allergen mix”, to be used as default ingredient in all baked products.

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

#300

Post by tuukkah »

stoperaticless wrote: post #246
harimau777 wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pass regulations that prevent producer A from undercutting producer B?

How? Forbid sesame seeds for everybody?

Not a bad idea actually. If some people can die of sesame seeds, the rest of us can manage without, sprinkle the seeds on our bread at home or bake our own bread if we can't live without sesame seeds.
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