Survey of allergen advisory labels

The Food Allergy Initiative in the USA has supported a study by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, into the frequency and language used in voluntary advisory labels on commercially available products. The study also sought to identify labelling ambiguities affecting consumers with food allergy. The survey comprised the assessment of 20,241 unique manufactured food products across 24 categories.

The results showed 17% of product labels surveyed featured allergen advisory labels. The three categories most frequently found to feature advisory labelling (≥40%) were chocolate, cookies, and baking mixes. The various wording used in the advisory statements included "may contain" (38%), "shared equipment" (33%), and "within plant" (meaning in the same manufacturing facility) (29%).

A second detailed survey of 744 unique products was conducted to evaluate additional labelling practices. This survey found 25 different types of advisory terminology which included nonspecific terms, such as "natural flavours" and "spices," on 65% of products. These were not linked to a specific ingredient in 83% of instances. Further ambiguities were recorded, such as products where the source of the declared soy was unclear (lecithin vs protein), sources of gelatin and lecithin were not disclosed, and on some products, the same allergen was included in both "contains" and "may contain" statements.

The researchers concluded that although general compliance with FALCPA legislation appears to be high, discrepancies and ambiguities are prevalent and pose potential risks and challenges for consumers with food allergies. They maintain that additional allergen labelling regulation could improve safety and quality of life for individuals with food allergy.

Reference: Pieretti et al. 2009 The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2009.05.032