Families Celebrate Food Allergy Labeling Bill

Families with members who have potentially deadly food allergies celebrated on Wednesday the final passage of a Congressional bill requiring foodmakers to list on their product labels any of the eight most common food allergens.

Families with members who have potentially deadly food allergies celebrated on Wednesday the final passage of a Congressional bill requiring foodmakers to list on their product labels any of the eight most common food allergens.”When I learned to read when I was five, I started with Mother Goose, Dr. Seuss, and ingredients labels,” said 12 year-old Alexandra Jaffe, who, along with her three younger siblings, is allergic to peanuts.Jaffe said she was surprised to learn that a leading brand of popcorn used peanuts in its flavorings, as did a lollipop. With enactment of the “Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act,” Jaffe said at a news conference, “I can now start to trust what ingredients labels say.”The measure, which President Bush is expected to sign, would require plain English labeling by 2006 if a product contains wheat, milk, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, or eggs. Those allergens account for an estimated 90 percent of all food allergies.The House passed the bill by voice vote Tuesday night. The Senate approved it earlier this year as part of broader measure to encourage the development of new medicines for animals.While many large companies have already moved to simplify their ingredients labels, many smaller companies have not, said Anne Munoz-Furlong of the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network.As a result, she said, “common foods are listed on labels in uncommon ways,” such as albumin instead of eggs, or casein instead of milk. “Fortunately, labels will soon be written for consumers, not scientists,” she said.The bill would also close what its sponsor, Rep. Nita Lowey, a Democrat from New York, calls “the flavoring loophole,” in which foods simply list “natural flavors,” without explaining what they are. “Consumers will not long have to wonder whether an allergen is hidden in the product,” she said.David Parkinson, 14, said he was caught by that loophole once drinking a smoothie that did not list milk as an ingredient, but included it as a stabilizer. The company did not think it was enough to cause a reaction, “but four hours later I found myself in the hospital,” he said.The bill also requires the Food and Drug Administration to develop a definition of the term “gluten-free” to help people who must avoid most grains, including wheat, rye, and barley. Such a person, medical student Katie Barrett, said she and the estimated 3 million other sufferers will benefit greatly. “Thank you for realizing how important food ingredient labels are for our health,” she said.(Source: Reuters, July 2004)