Research published as a letter to the editor in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology claims that consumers are increasingly ignoring “may contain” or “made in a facility that processes…” warning labels, even though they signify “a small but real” risk:
Allergen advisory labelling (e.g., “may contain” and “made in a facility that processes”) used on manufactured products is voluntary, unregulated, and increasingly common.
1 Consumers with food allergy appear to be increasingly ignoring these warnings.
2 presumably because of frustration and doubt about their legitimacy and risks.
Because the labelling is voluntary, consumers might additionally question whether products without such statements are safe, creating further anxiety and frustration. A better understanding of the risks would inform consumers, industry, regulators, and physicians how best to approach this problem. We designed the current study to simultaneously address three important issues that have not been previously evaluated: (1) to determine the frequency and level of contamination of a large sample of products with advisory labelling for 3 major allergens, (2) to determine whether risks for these 3 foods vary between large and small manufacturers, and 3) to determine the frequency and level of contamination of products that lack advisory labelling but are similar to ones bearing such statements.
The full article is available online here.