A new article in Food Additives & Contaminants identified a case where a person with a severe milk allergy reacted to the unintended presence of milk protein in some dark chocolate. The dark chocolate product did not carry a May Contain warning.
The same article notes that the many people ignore May Contain warnings because they are so common that they are considered just a way of preventing lawsuits. When many consumers see a May Contain warning with six or eight ingredients listed, they just laugh.
It seems like the manufacturer’s can’t win on this one – both over labeling and under labeling can have a negative effect on consumers. The key seems to be finding a way to identify the allergens that are actually in the food and listing them on the ingredient label without costing so much that prices become unaffordable.
The proposed solution is a program of risk assessment that will allow manufacturers to determine whether significant amounts of allergens might be present in base ingredients or be introduced through cross contact or processing. Even tiny amounts of those allergenic ingredients need to be listed, if they are enough to cause a reaction for consumers.
A number of countries are well down the road to implementing such policies, with Australia leading the way. Here’s hoping that all the food exporting countries will converge on the same set of safe practices. For more information, check out www.foodallergens.info
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