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my personal edition > allergy other > news
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DGDispatch
Food Allergen Labelling Rules May Impose Unnecessary Challenges for Patients on Avoidance Diets: Presented at AAAAI
By Bryan DeBusk
SAN DIEGO, CA -- February 27, 2007 -- Thanks to new food labelling rules instituted last year, food-allergic patients on avoidance diets may have trouble finding safe cookies at their local retail stores, according to researchers speaking here at the 2007 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI) annual meeting.
Since January 1, 2006, food producers in the United States have been required to comply with the Food Allergen Labelling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) by clearly indicating whether the product contains any of the 8 major food allergens (milk, egg, tree nut, peanut, fish, crustacean shellfish, soy, wheat) in the ingredient list or in a "Contains" statement (eg, contains: milk, soy, and egg).
"We wanted to find out what the impact of this new law would be, so we analysed labelling of 1 particular category of food product -- cookies -- in June/July 2005 (6 months before the new rules came into effect) and again in June/July 2006," said Steve Taylor, PhD, professor of food science and technology, food allergy research & resource program, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States.
Dr. Taylor and colleagues purchased every type of cookie available at 2 major retail stores in Lincoln, Nebraska and 2 additional stores in Fairfax, Virginia, and examined the labels to determine how closely they complied with FALCPA.
Of 821 different types of cookies examined, 82% were in compliance 6 months ahead of the new rules. Imported cookies were less likely to be compliant than cookies produced domestically (70% compared with 86%).
The researchers found that the new law is having an impact, and the data obtained to date suggest that the percentage of noncompliant cookies decreased from 2005 to 2006.
Although compliance is intended to protect food-allergic consumers, Dr. Taylor expressed concern that a new additional labelling practice introduced by the food industry may be going too far. As an example, he cited warnings about peanuts that arose with the advent of "May Contain" labels. "Only 7% of cookies have peanuts in the ingredient list, but another 39% of cookies say they 'may contain' peanuts. So that means if you're allergic to peanuts and you're strictly trying to avoid them, almost half of the cookies in the supermarket are off your diet."
New "May Contain" labels are not the only issue the researchers identified that may make avoidance diets more difficult. "Perhaps the biggest impact is that there's an increase in the declaration of soybeans on cookie labels because of a processing aid that was not previously required to be labelled on cookies," Dr. Taylor said in his presentation on February 25th. Results from the study show that 79% of cookies identify soy as a component, and 66% contain soy lecithin.
"The changes in labelling are really making avoidance diets more difficult for food-allergic consumers and are probably compromising the quality of life that they experience as a result," he said.
[Presentation title: Cookies and Avoidance Diets -- Impact of the Food Allergen Labelling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) and Other Industry Practices on Ingredient Labelling of Cookies. Poster 441]
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