Food Allergy Recalls

Sample Food Label

 Are you getting timely recall notices from food manufacturers when a product ingredient label is incorrect? The food allergy community counts on those labels to be right and I continue to be amazed at how many recall notices I get in my email box each week. If you haven't signed up for a recall service, here are a few options:

• FAAN's Special Allergy Alert Notices
• Food Safety's Allergy Alerts
• Canadian Food Inspection Agency
• The Food Allergy Foundation
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Check them out, choose the one you like and get those email alerts so you're aware of label errors.

Wait, Nutella isn't a Health Food?!?

Nutella and Food Allergies

I had to shake my head this weekend when I heard about the Nutella® lawsuit. Apparently some people watched TV ads for Nutella and believed the gooey, chocolaty spread was a health food. That in spite of the fact that the first ingredient listed on the label is sugar. 


"I don't have time to read ingredients when I'm grocery shopping. It would take me like 4 or 5 hours to shop," said San Diego mom Athena Hohenberg (the plaintiff behind the class-action suit) this weekend in a TV interview.


Welcome to our world. A world of reading food labels so you know what you're buying and feeding your family. Trust me, I'd like to not read food labels too. It sure would make for quicker grocery shopping and I could go on believing that carrot cake is a health food.


A couple of tips for people who eat food:

• don't trust advertisements by companies trying to get you to buy their food product .
• spend a few minutes reading the ingredient labels of the foods you eat and feed to your family. 

Many food allergy families would have avoided Nutella due to the nuts, dairy and soy clearly listed on its label, but if you happened to buy Nutella between Jan. 1, 2008 and Feb. 3, 2012, you can file a claim. 
 You may be eligible for up to $20 from the company.


However, if you choose to purchase more Nutella with your winnings, know that you're getting a spread of sugar, palm oil, hazelnuts, cocoa, reduced minerals, whey, soy lecithin and vanillin. 


I know, because it says so right on the label.

Food Allergy Labels

You gotta love mom-inspired ideas!

Check out these simple and easy to make labels by mom and designer Kori Clark. They are simple to read and attention-grabbing- just perfect for grandparents, babysitters, older siblings and young children with food allergies.

Thanks for sharing Kori!

Reporting a Mislabeled Food

We depend on food labels. If the label has incorrect information, someone with food allergies could have a severe, even fatal, reaction.

Quick thinking on the part of Crystal Johnson, who discovered chocolate covered peanuts in her pecan ice cream, may have saved lives. Peanuts were not listed on the label and should not have been in the ice cream. She has a friend with a peanut allergy and knew this could cause a serious reaction. Ms. Johnson contacted FAAN (Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network) and the FDA (Food and Drug Association) as well as Mars, the parent company for Dove who manufactured the ice cream product. She saved the container and the FDA sent someone to her home to test it. The product did indeed contain peanuts and was recalled.

That's how it's done.

By the way, Ms. Johnson did get a letter of apology from Mar's and coupons for free ice cream. Here's the entire article.

Scary Stuff

Everyone should check out this article in the Nov. 21, 2008 issue of the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune article spotlights an investigation they did on food manufacturers who mis-label their products and the failure of regulators to police these manufacturers. Incorrect ingredient labels are dangerous to everyone- food allergic, diabetic, those watching cholesterol, salt intake or weight. We trust those labels to be true.

Guess what? 47% of products recalled for hidden allergens in the past 10 years were never even announced to the public. When a label clearly says "does not contain wheat", we need to be able to trust that information.

After reading this article, it is obvious we have a long way to go. Our food manufacturers must be required to know what is in their product, report that on a label and immediately recall an item if the label is not accurate. Right now, if a recall is even issued, it takes on average, 32 days, to get the recall information to the public. Not good enough. Not even close.