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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

#211

Post by alwa »

moregrist wrote: post #204
AnotherGoodName wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm I wonder how good the us legal system is if a person insists they fell ill eating a product without a warning label and it goes to a jury trial? There will undoubtedly be a focus on ‘whether you can be 100% sure there was no sesame dust in the air’. Without a perfect vacuum clean room (that doesn’t really exist) you can’t be. As in even if you’re really fucking clean your probably losing the case in the American…

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…

From your perspective, has this shift reduced the number of options you’re comfortable feeding to your allergic child?

I guess what I’m asking is, was the previous situation (label indicating the mere possibility of cross-contamination) enough of a risk that you avoided those foods, before this labeling shift?

And has the availability changed post-regulation as far as brands or bakeries that lean in to being conscientious about this risk?

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

#212

Post by adolph »

From the FDA letter, it looks like they want Bimbo to move the allergens from ingredients to a possible cross-contamination statement. Seems pretty straightforward.

We also offer the following comments:

Separate from the food allergen labeling requirements of the Act, firms may voluntarily place other information or statements on the labels of food products to disclose information about allergens to consumers. For example, firms may choose to voluntarily place allergen advisory statements on products to alert consumers to the possible presence of major food allergens due to cross-contact. Any allergen advisory statement must be truthful and not misleading.

https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-c...

On the other hand, Bimbo is misspelling Khorasan!

The ingredient list declares “Kamut®” which is not part of the common or usual name of Khorasan wheat because it is a brand name. Furthermore, Khorasan is misspelled as “Khorsan.”

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

#213

Post by wombatpm »

Molitor5901 wrote: post #186
starttoaster wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Companies aren't dogs Metaphor, but sure, quite literally they're not dogs. Very true. > companies have obligations that they need to fulfill and they're choosing to neglect them. From our eyes they're neglecting to follow the spirit of a policy. From their eyes, they're following it to the letter of the policy. Perspective.

AFAIK you are required to follow the letter of the law, not the spirit. Whatever spirit moved the legislature into approving a law is secondary to the actual wording of the law. If congress wanted people to follow "the spirit of the law" then they should have made the law more explicit, instead of leaving it up to the FDA to decide what's the right spirit to have.

For my friends everything! Fir my enemies the law!

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

#214

Post by kgwgk »

maxerickson wrote: post #209
causality0 wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have a legal duty to not poison people by telling them there aren't allergens in their food when there might be. You don't have a legal duty to create a hypoallergenic product line. Regulations exist to protect your rights, not make your shopping experience more convenient.

Oh, great, people are living up to their legal duty, I'm so proud of them and totally won't think they don't give a shit about other people if they do the cheapest thing that satisfies the regulation.

People are going to buy the cheapest option that satisfies the regulation. If giving shit about other people means systematically buying more expensive options they won't give any.

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

#215

Post by maxerickson »

kgwgk wrote: post #214
maxerickson wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, great, people are living up to their legal duty, I'm so proud of them and totally won't think they don't give a shit about other people if they do the cheapest thing that satisfies the regulation.

People are going to buy the cheapest option that satisfies the regulation. If giving shit about other people means systematically buying more expensive options they won't give any.

People can buy whatever they want, it's the producers changing their recipe or labeling that demonstrates not giving a shit.

They aren't changing their recipe to make their product better or cheaper, they change it so that they don't have to deal with compliance. That's the not giving a shit.

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

#216

Post by doctor_eval »

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…

I can’t answer for sesame, but my kid has an allergy to a specific nut, that we discovered after mum picked baby up after handling said nut, leaving bright red welts on their little body. No ingestion required.

Subsequently, immunology department, skin prick tests to identify the specific culprit, “risk of anaphylaxis” posters, and an Epipen - with risk factor based on the size of the reaction, in millimeters, to the skin prick test.

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

#217

Post by itsoktocry »

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…

Good question.

The idea that coming into contact with a seed could kill you seems insane and terrible. Yet where are all the people dying of this? Is the implication that our prevention is so good we are somehow avoiding it? I'm also skeptical.

I'm not denying that it exists, but common knowledge (you literally can't eat peanut butter at school) indicates it's so common. How could this be?

The solution is to stock epipens everywhere.

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

#218

Post by lisper »

doctor_eval wrote: post #216
lisper wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

I can’t answer for sesame, but my kid has an allergy to a specific nut, that we discovered after mum picked baby up after handling said nut, leaving bright red welts on their little body. No ingestion required. Subsequently, immunology department, skin prick tests to identify the specific culprit, “risk of anaphylaxis” posters, and an Epipen - with risk factor based on the size of the reaction, in millimeters, to the…

Thanks.

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

#219

Post by itsoktocry »

causality0 wrote: post #202
maxerickson wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You have a legal duty to not poison people by telling them there aren't allergens in their food when there might be. You don't have a legal duty to create a hypoallergenic product line. Regulations exist to protect your rights, not make your shopping experience more convenient.

What's an allergen? Or, more interestingly, what isn't an allergen?
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