> In a twist few would have expected, however, many food companies have chosen to add small amounts of sesame flour to products that were previously sesame-free, instead of conducting the careful cleaning required for foods without sesame.<p>I beg to differ -- this is exactly what should have been expected if this is the cheapest path forward.<p>The FDA doesn't allow precautionary labeling (e.g., "may contain traces of..." or "manufactured in a facility that also...") in place of "proper cleaning procedures". This impacts sesame because a <i>ton</i> of industrial-scale bakers produce <i>both</i> sesame <i>and</i> non-sesame items on the same lines, and these could in theory be cleaned and verified, and precautionary labeling isn't a substitute for that.<p>So, forced to either (a) overhaul likely-daily cleaning procedures to ensure and then later verify that not even trace amounts of sesame protein are present in products on the line, or (b) sprinkle some literal <s>fairy</s> sesame dust into these items and list it in the ingredients, manufacturers understandably chose the latter.<p>Perhaps future facilities will be built to segregate sesame from non-sesame production lines, but current ones don't -- and a retrofit probably costs far more than whatever reduction in sales they may face from including sesame.
I almost can't believe this is actually for real, it reads like satire from TheOnion.com.<p>Welcome to America in 2023, where they are <i>deliberately</i> adding allergens to food, in order to comply with potentially over-reaching laws...<p>It's peanuts too: <a href="https://snacksafely.com/2022/04/company-will-add-trace-amount-of-allergen-to-all-products-to-skirt-safety-regulation/" rel="nofollow">https://snacksafely.com/2022/04/company-will-add-trace-amoun...</a>
> under federal labeling rules, they can’t state that their products contain sesame unless the items actually contain it — so they’re adding sesame and labeling it<p>This is the crux of it.<p>Here in the UK, it's common for food to be labelled “May contain traces of milk” and other allergens, when the ingredients list doesn't include those allergens.
It took me a little bit to understand the article's wording but here goes.
The manufacturers say it is difficult to comply with the law by cleaning the equipment. So they want to label that the product may contain sesame by accident. But they can't say that because it wasn't intentional. So they have to actually put sesame in so they can label it.
Another unintended consequence could be increased exposure to potential allergens in babies, reducing allergy rates.<p>"Give babies peanut butter to cut allergy by 77%, study says" -
<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64987074" rel="nofollow">https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64987074</a>
this reminds me of being scolded as an ADHD child for not cleaning enough... and really the only solution to my mind if I got the same result either way was to give up entirely.
a textbook example of a perverse incentive.<p>“the bar to establish absence is too high, the risks of saying maybe are too high, so we will instead guarantee a presence and not get sued. “
This reminds me of prescription drug ads now including this disclaimer: "Do not take [drug name] if you are allergic to [drug name]."<p>When it's this much easier to comply with the letter of the law than the intent, is it any wonder why things like this happen?
I wish the article would just summarize the content in the title, so I don’t have to read the entire article. Tldr: restaurant cannot say “the product may contain traces of sesame”, they must include it on the ingredient list, but if it’s on the ingredients list they must add it to the product.
This is no different from the CA labels saying some random widget could give you cancer. It's to protect against liability where you can say you labeled for it.
So, to be clear, this is absolutely a case of these businesses making choices they know are harmful but are technically legal, and is bad.<p>But I wonder if in the long term adding trace amounts of common allergens to many foods is a viable strategy? I read recently that exposing kids to trace amounts of peanuts at a young age drastically cuts down on peanut allergies.<p>Maybe a better strategy is to make a pill with tiny amounts of common allergens (shellfish, peanut butter, sesame, celery, etc) and encourage parents to feed it to their kids daily?