Originally published in the May 28, 2014, issue
By Dallas Duncan
Approximately 30,000 Americans visit the
emergency room, and more than 150 die, each year due to allergic reactions to
food, according to the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network.
And there’s no cure, according to the US Food and Drug Administration website. The best thing consumers can do is avoid
products that contain the food allergens they have reactions to.
That’s where product labeling comes in,
said Patricia Batten, manufactured food program associate for the Department’s Food Safety Division.
“You’ve got to list your ingredients and
if any ingredient is made up of sub-ingredients, you have to list it,” Batten
said. “I always tell folks, lay your ingredients on the table. … If the
allergens are spelled out in the ingredient statement, you do not have to put
an allergen statement.”
Take butter, for example. Butter
contains milk, so in the ingredient statement, a manufacturer could say,
“butter [cream, milk, natural flavoring]” and eliminate the need to have a
separate statement on the label saying the product contains milk, she said.
Dairy is one of several food allergens,
said Jessica Badour, recall outreach specialist for the Food Safety Division.
The others are eggs, shellfish, fish, wheat, peanuts, soybeans, sulfites and
tree nuts, including chestnuts, brazil nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans,
cashews and pine nuts. Some food dyes can also cause allergic reactions.
Consumers can also be intolerant to
foods instead of allergic. Food intolerance refers to an abnormal response to a
food or additive, such as digestive problems after eating dairy, according to
the FDA. A food allergy, on the other hand, occurs when the body produces a
specific immunoglobulin – a protein the immune system uses to identify foreign
objects, such as viruses – to a food. Once the food is eaten and binds with
this protein, it starts an allergic reaction.
If a company does not declare an
allergen, the best thing it can do is recall the product, Batten said.
“That’s very costly. Years back,
Frito-Lay had made some Grandma’s Cookies Chocolate Chip. They forgot to put
eggs in the label. They recalled 1.2 million cookies and they just threw them
in the landfill,” she said.
Badour said recalls can come through in
three ways. Companies realize they mislabeled, a consumer calls to complain of
a potential mislabeling or inspectors might see possible cross-contamination
risks during a facility or process inspection.
Some labels will point out that a
product is produced in a facility that could cause cross-contamination with
allergens, even if a product itself does not contain any.
“That statement is really saying that
I’m listing all my allergens here, but I may also process something with nuts.
There might be traces,” Batten said.
When it comes to eating out, restaurant
menus do not typically declare allergens. That means it’s up to the foodservice
staff to know what goes in the food and be able to relay that to customers at
risk for allergic reactions.
“Due to the serious nature of food
allergies, the current Georgia Food Service Rules and Regulations … requires
that the person in charge must demonstrate knowledge of the foods that have
been identified as major food allergens and be familiar with the symptoms,”
said Chris Rustin, director of the Georgia Department of Public Health Environmental Health Section.
Symptoms of a food allergy include
allergic reactions, anaphylaxis and even death, he said. It’s also important
for foodservice staff to be aware of food allergens, which could be a matter of
mortality for some customers. Rustin added that another step foodservice
establishments must take is to clean and sanitize equipment, surfaces and
utensils that come into contact with raw animal protein allergens, such as
shellfish, before being used for other foods to prevent the “inadvertent
introduction of an allergen into a product that the allergen was not intended
to be added as an ingredient.”
“With increased knowledge and
understanding … food employees are better suited to inform customers about
foods containing a major food allergen to reduce the likelihood of exposure,”
Rustin said.
