There’s always 2nd-order affects to removing allergens in food.
In 2000 the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended parents wait until 3 years to introduce peanuts. 17 years later they dramatically reversed the guidance and admitted it probably was at least partly responsible for the meteoric rise of peanut allergies in America.
That paper is fascinating, not just because of the discussion of peanut ingestion and allergies. I was unaware that moisturizing eczema outbreaks in very young infants reduces their lifetime chance of developing peanut and other food allergies, nor of the link between eczema and risks of developing a peanut allergy.
This reminds me of the reason Five Guys has open containers of peanuts prominently displayed in their stores: they fry in peanut oil. Ironically, peanut oil doesn't have the allergen that triggers most peanut allergies, but explaining that is difficult, so they just went all-in with the free peanuts everywhere branding instead.
I don’t understand. Why would the suppliers change the recipe to _add_ sesame? Is it not just that they accepted the “may contain sesame” label instead of removing (or proving the lack of) sesame?
Because apparently that doesn't count and they still have to prevent cross-contamination.
>Some companies include statements on labels that say a food “may contain” a certain product or that the food is “produced in a facility” that also uses certain allergens. However, such statements are voluntary, not required, according to the FDA, and they do not absolve the company of requirements to prevent cross-contamination.
Basically the options are redo your production process so that there are no traces of sesame or add enough to put it on the ingredients list.
You aren't allowed to put things on the ingredients list which aren't actually in the food, and the new regulation doesn't let they say that there _might_ be sesame.
They're made in the same bakery that other goods that have sesame and other seeds and nuts. You can't guarantee there won't be any so add the tiniest amount for labeling purposes... yes it could be more expensive not to.
Of course this is the exact opposite of what TFA had to say.
That's odd. The EU is usually more strict than the USA on food standards, and indeed sesame had to be labelled at least as far back as 2004. But the "may contain" or "produced in a facility that handles" labelling still seems to be allowed.
> Why would the suppliers change the recipe to _add_ sesame?
Control and consistency.
If you don't measure an ingredient, you are at the mercy of a zillion different things for how much of that ingredient is present and your consistency is terrible. In addition, people who are only weakly allergic to said ingredient can never be sure if there is too much of it. People who go into anaphylaxis have to avoid your stuff altogether, anyhow.
If, however, you measure the ingredient, now the amount is precisely controlled. People who are only weakly allergic can test and now know from that point on that they are okay (or not).
The people who are jumping up and down are the people who are strongly allergic. They expected the adopted law to cause manufacturers to have to pristine clean their lines when, in reality, the precise opposite occurred--the manufacturers added the ingredient and made their lines "dirtier".
the law is aimed at being more informative, making it easier for allergic(?) people to shop safely, without taking sesame away from those who like it. It's not intended to drive sesame out of foods.
We're stuck in a vicious cycle with allergies - first peanuts, now sesame, and possibly eggs in the future.
When kids are exposed to the above early and often, they're much less likely to develop allergies. However, to protect the allergic, peanuts and now sesame are removed from childcare facilities, school lunches, etc. This exposes fewer children, which increases the percent that develop the allergy, requiring the allergen to be removed from more products & places people eat!
Who knows if it applies to these buns, but it's an interesting situation we're stuck with.
I'm not totally sure if it works like that. I grew up in Korea, where peanuts are consumed but not much: I never even heard of peanut butter growing up. Interestingly, peanut allergies are also rare: again, I don't think I heard about it growing up.
Move to the US, where peanuts and peanut butter are everywhere, and suddenly I'm responsible for checking whether my kids' snacks contain peanuts because someone in the class might be allergic to it!
The study linked above says that exposing kids to peanuts lowers the chance of them developing peanut allergy — and people (including the authors of that article) tend to make the faulty assumption that this means peanut allergy is caused by not being exposed to peanuts early enough.
As you’ve highlighted this would imply that cultures where there are no peanuts would be filled with peanut allergies — but that’s not the case.
I suspect that there’s a cross reactivity going on. Infants are exposed to an allergen and their immune system develops a good response for it. That response also applies to peanuts, unnecessarily. Had they been exposed to both peanuts and the true allergen then their immune system would’ve learned to discriminate.
A similar example — some US citizens are exposed to poison Ivy. They develop a stronger and stronger response after multiple exposures. Later (as a consequence) they are also allergic to Mango because Mango has some kind of similarity to Poison Ivy, from the immune system’s point of view. The Mango allergy could be reduced if they had been also exposed to mango… but mango isn’t the problem — Poison Ivy is!
> However, to protect the allergic, peanuts and now sesame are removed from childcare facilities, school lunches, etc.
The solution is for people to expose their kids to that stuff at home. That way the kids get the exposure without endangering the population.
I have no evidence for any of it, but my pet theory is that the increase in food allergies (especially adult onset) is at least somewhat environmental. That we're exposed to so many toxic products/pollutants, and our bodies so filled with microplastics, that our gut epithelium becomes compromised, we have increased inflammation, and our immune systems are increasingly on high alert causing them to overreact to things that aren't really threats.
There's a lot of study of allergy differences between rural and urban kids. The explanation given is often that rural kids have a much wider exposure to allergens and pathogens. This is an interesting alternative explanation.
I suspect most people with food allergies actually just have an eating disorder, or anxiety/hypochondria issues. I wouldn't rule out sociogenic "food allergies" either. Look at the gluten-free fad that took off for a while.
Some pediatricians now recommend exposure to common allergens and products that cause allergic reactions very early. Even if the "lack of exposure as the direct cause" theory doesn't play out, which I'm not sure it will, early exposure allows you to find out if your child has a serious adverse reaction before they reach school age and have one in school.
The 9 major allergens are now: milk, eggs, fish, such as bass, flounder, cod, Crustacean shellfish, such as crab, lobster, shrimp
tree nuts, such as almonds, walnuts, pecans
peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame
One of my good friends has a sesame allergy and this law has backfired spectacularly for her. She basically can't buy bread now because at our local Kroger every brand has started purposely adding sesame to all their stuff so they can declare it as an ingredient and avoid having to deal with cross-contamination.
So now bread that was previously in practice (but not theoretically) safe for her to eat is being made specifically unsafe.
I’ve had some experience with it in a close relative. Interestingly enough, the whole seeds are usually fine as you don’t digest them, the protein in question is inside the seed (unless you go out of your way to chew them). Most sesame oils are also fine. It’s the pastes that are dangerous (some desserts, hummus, sauces).
That’s funny because it is unusual to actually crush a sesame seed.
I either have to position and bite down on one between my canines or they may break up when they get stuck between teeth or in course of unsticking them.
Sesame seeds are never that satisfying to eat, but they do add texture to the bun.
I am. I'm lucky in that I'm not anaphylactic to it, but it causes me other problems. I was able to eat sesame for decades, then one day, after having a bunch of other issues, I went to the doctor and they tested me for a bunch of stuff and a bunch of stuff I could previously eat without issue, I'm now allergic to. It really sucks, though it's better than if it caused anaphylaxis.
FYI this reads like you were fine with sesame until you went to the doctor for something else, and you came away with an allergy to sesame. Maybe that's what you meant, but that would be even scarier to me than "I discovered I had developed an allergy to sesame as a consequence of other issues"!
In some places, it is shrinkflation. At Walmart, the baked-in-the-store bread with sesame seeds on top runs $1.78. Without the seeds, $1.48. February of 2022, both loaves cost $1.00.
Seems odd. Trader Joe's still sells peanuts. McDonalds still uses sesame seeds on Big Mac buns. It's not as if foods stop being sold when they're classified as potential allergens.
Not necessarily an allergy thing - could be cost out, supply chain issues, or a new focus group that tells them that consumers don't actually like sesame seeds.
That was dishonest. Fortunately, it probably didn't matter at all? Because there's not an evil spirit that condemns folks who eat beef products even by accident.
Readit News
In 2000 the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended parents wait until 3 years to introduce peanuts. 17 years later they dramatically reversed the guidance and admitted it probably was at least partly responsible for the meteoric rise of peanut allergies in America.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6157280/
https://apnews.com/article/sesame-allergies-label-b28f8eb3dc...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34830917
Facts like that are completely irrelevant before a judge and jury, so their position is understandable and probably for the best (for them).
>Some companies include statements on labels that say a food “may contain” a certain product or that the food is “produced in a facility” that also uses certain allergens. However, such statements are voluntary, not required, according to the FDA, and they do not absolve the company of requirements to prevent cross-contamination.
Basically the options are redo your production process so that there are no traces of sesame or add enough to put it on the ingredients list.
Of course this is the exact opposite of what TFA had to say.
You either follow difficult procedures to avoid cross-contamination, or you make it an ingredient. There is no option in between.
There's some explanation here:
https://www.tuvsud.com/en/press-and-media/2018/january/tuv-s...
Control and consistency.
If you don't measure an ingredient, you are at the mercy of a zillion different things for how much of that ingredient is present and your consistency is terrible. In addition, people who are only weakly allergic to said ingredient can never be sure if there is too much of it. People who go into anaphylaxis have to avoid your stuff altogether, anyhow.
If, however, you measure the ingredient, now the amount is precisely controlled. People who are only weakly allergic can test and now know from that point on that they are okay (or not).
The people who are jumping up and down are the people who are strongly allergic. They expected the adopted law to cause manufacturers to have to pristine clean their lines when, in reality, the precise opposite occurred--the manufacturers added the ingredient and made their lines "dirtier".
When kids are exposed to the above early and often, they're much less likely to develop allergies. However, to protect the allergic, peanuts and now sesame are removed from childcare facilities, school lunches, etc. This exposes fewer children, which increases the percent that develop the allergy, requiring the allergen to be removed from more products & places people eat!
Who knows if it applies to these buns, but it's an interesting situation we're stuck with.
https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2017/01/10/peanut-allergy-earl...
Move to the US, where peanuts and peanut butter are everywhere, and suddenly I'm responsible for checking whether my kids' snacks contain peanuts because someone in the class might be allergic to it!
As you’ve highlighted this would imply that cultures where there are no peanuts would be filled with peanut allergies — but that’s not the case.
I suspect that there’s a cross reactivity going on. Infants are exposed to an allergen and their immune system develops a good response for it. That response also applies to peanuts, unnecessarily. Had they been exposed to both peanuts and the true allergen then their immune system would’ve learned to discriminate.
A similar example — some US citizens are exposed to poison Ivy. They develop a stronger and stronger response after multiple exposures. Later (as a consequence) they are also allergic to Mango because Mango has some kind of similarity to Poison Ivy, from the immune system’s point of view. The Mango allergy could be reduced if they had been also exposed to mango… but mango isn’t the problem — Poison Ivy is!
The solution is for people to expose their kids to that stuff at home. That way the kids get the exposure without endangering the population.
I have no evidence for any of it, but my pet theory is that the increase in food allergies (especially adult onset) is at least somewhat environmental. That we're exposed to so many toxic products/pollutants, and our bodies so filled with microplastics, that our gut epithelium becomes compromised, we have increased inflammation, and our immune systems are increasingly on high alert causing them to overreact to things that aren't really threats.
of course, there are a whole lot reasons why parents don't.
what is that old joke--we need a license to drive a car but not to make a baby.
But the grocery’s internal notes in the product attribute the change to the FDA ruling sesame a major food allergen.
Anyone allergic to sesame?
Here’s a direct link to FDA’s announcement, which includes mention of the January 1st, 2023 new product labeling requirement.
https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/allergic-sesa...
The 9 major allergens are now: milk, eggs, fish, such as bass, flounder, cod, Crustacean shellfish, such as crab, lobster, shrimp tree nuts, such as almonds, walnuts, pecans peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame
So now bread that was previously in practice (but not theoretically) safe for her to eat is being made specifically unsafe.
I either have to position and bite down on one between my canines or they may break up when they get stuck between teeth or in course of unsticking them.
Sesame seeds are never that satisfying to eat, but they do add texture to the bun.
I have a niece who is crazy allergic to sesame. She'll have a serious reaction to even very tiny amounts.
I am. I'm lucky in that I'm not anaphylactic to it, but it causes me other problems. I was able to eat sesame for decades, then one day, after having a bunch of other issues, I went to the doctor and they tested me for a bunch of stuff and a bunch of stuff I could previously eat without issue, I'm now allergic to. It really sucks, though it's better than if it caused anaphylaxis.
Deleted Comment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_(fish)
Maybe there’s some manufacturing location sesame buns can be done alongside other sesame products that is more efficient.
Maybe instead of making portions sneakily smaller you just get rid of the extras.
Watch out, it'll be the sprinkles on cupcakes next...
McDonalds never struck me as a company that cares very much.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/ma...