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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

#381

Post by NovemberWhiskey »

If guaranteed-sesame-free bread (or whatever) isn't a commercially viable product, then there's nothing that the FDA can do to change that.

If you operate a punitive regulatory regime with respect to cross-contamination, you can't expect manufacturers to say "OK, we'll take the occasional fine and public-relations hit just to address this tiny part of the market" if that's not good business.

If you buy cotton cleaning patches for cleaning rifles, they come with Prop 65 warnings these days. Not because cotton causes cancer, but because cleaning your rifle can expose you to lead, and because plaintiff's attorneys can sue in private enforcement actions. So does the rifle, the solvent and the brass cleaning rod.

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

#382

Post by WrongAssumption »

ehnto wrote: post #284
john_the_writer wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a scale difference. If you're making bread product for a million people you have a massive factory.. And nuts be there

If the regulations had teeth and they weren't allowed to cross contaminate at all, they would build a process that achieves that. Instead they get to put a few labels on there and just accept that they'll lose some customers who are allergic, save some money not building a new process.

You aren’t following what is hsppening. The regulation does exactly that, not allow any cross contamination. So they are adding sesame as an ingredient and labeling it as such.

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

#384

Post by postmodest »

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…

This is the same issue as Prop 65, and while we can all say "oh the law is bad" the real problem is _corporations are lazy_.

Instead of making sure their products are safe, they just say everything is unsafe, because they know consumers will become numb to it.

Our food shouldn't contain allergens, and our computer mice shouldn't give us cancer, but instead of taking the time to make sure of that, companies just tell us the products are dangerous, because they know we don't really have a choice.

They have the money and the capability, but they choose profit over consumer safety, and that's THEIR sin, not ours.

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

#385

Post by dialup_sounds »

tuukkah wrote: post #300
stoperaticless wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Apply that logic to more common allergens like wheat, eggs, milk, or soy.

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

#387

Post by thworp »

Miner49er wrote: post #372
thworp wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Prevent allergens" means a 100% certainty that there are no trace amounts. This would require clean-room conditions for the entire factory, deep cleaning everything (including the inside of machinery) between each batch, and doing similarly extreme things across the entire supply chain. How do you think this will be financed?

This is not the case at all. It's done for gluten free foods. Gluten free foods have to be under 20ppm to be called GF, and there are many gluten free foods out there. Even some made on the same equipment as gluten containing foods (just cleaned thoroughly).

Most gluten-free ingredients come from completely different crops, that are stored and processed in seperate facilities. But even if they weren't, have you checked the prices of certified allergen-free food recently? Even if a large part of the difference is a lack of scale, there would be riots if all foods had to follow those standards.

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

#389

Post by NovemberWhiskey »

postmodest wrote: post #384
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…

This is the same issue as Prop 65, and while we can all say "oh the law is bad" the real problem is _corporations are lazy_. Instead of making sure their products are safe, they just say everything is unsafe, because they know consumers will become numb to it. Our food shouldn't contain allergens, and our computer mice shouldn't give us cancer, but instead of taking the time to make sure of that, companies just tell…

The problem with Prop 65 is that we've delegated plaintiff's attorneys to conduct private enforcement actions. Also that the law requires a warning, but doesn't require an explanation of what the material is, what part of the product contains it, or how you are likely to get exposed to it.

As I mentioned elsewhere on this discussion, this is why pure cotton patches now come with Prop 65 warnings (if you might use them to clean a rifle...)

Rag on corporations all you want, but Prop 65 is a terrible law.

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

#390

Post by konschubert »

postmodest wrote: post #384
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…

This is the same issue as Prop 65, and while we can all say "oh the law is bad" the real problem is _corporations are lazy_. Instead of making sure their products are safe, they just say everything is unsafe, because they know consumers will become numb to it. Our food shouldn't contain allergens, and our computer mice shouldn't give us cancer, but instead of taking the time to make sure of that, companies just tell…

I don’t know what the margins on bread are, but I would bet that they are tiny since this is a competitive market.

Meaning that this kind of medical-lab-style cross contamination protocol will either raise the cost of the product or reduce the variety and choice.

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