Beware of food labels if you have allergies; FDA again relaxes rules due to COVID-19
For the fifth time since the coronavirus pandemic began, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has relaxed regulations on food labeling and packaging requirements for manufacturers and vending machine operators.
But this time, the updated guidance raises serious concerns for the 32 million Americans with food allergies.
The FDA recently unveiled the “temporary flexibility policy” to ease worries over product availability due to shifting consumer demand and disruptions in international supply chains.
“The devil is in the details,” Dave Bloom, chief executive of SnackSafely, a food allergy organization, wrote in a blog post, according to The Washington Post. “The guidance goes on to introduce numerous loopholes that are of concern to members of the food allergy community.”
The new policy allows manufacturers to swap ingredients in foods without updating the printed ingredients list on the packaging, the FDA said in a statement.
For example, canola oil can be substituted for sunflower oil “because they contain similar types of fats” without a label change and unbleached flour can replace bleached flour due to current shortages of the “bleaching agent,” the agency said.
The substitutions can only be made under certain conditions, however.
“The ingredient being omitted or substituted” cannot affect nutrient content or health claims on the label, cannot be a “characterizing ingredient” such as raisins in raisin bread and cannot cause “adverse health effects” including allergic reactions.
But food allergy advocates say that’s not enough to keep people safe because exposure to some unknown ingredients can lead to harmful consequences such as anaphylaxis, which is the most serious and deadly reaction from food allergens, according to WebMD.
“We understand that COVID-19 has been an obstacle for food manufacturers, too, through unanticipated shortages and supply chain disruptions to ensure products are available,” Lisa Gable, chief executive officer of FARE, a leader in food allergy advocacy and private funder of research in the field, said in a statement.
“But the food allergy community relies on transparency and it is our hope that we can work together with FDA to find a solution that benefits everyone and ensures the safety of the food supply for those whose lives depend on knowing exactly what is in the products they are buying.”
Each year, about 30,000 individuals visit the emergency room because of severe allergic reactions, and about 150 die as a result, according to the FDA.
The number of product recalls because of “unlabeled allergens rose to 121 in 2000 from about 35 a decade earlier,” the agency said.
FARE has asked the FDA to require food manufacturers to let people know what ingredient changes are made through their website, social media or on retail websites that sell those products.
Labels such as stickers could also help “regain the trust of the food allergy community,” FARE said in its statement.
The second “temporary flexibility” the FDA issued is to vending machine operators, who now don’t have to provide calorie information for foods sold in the machine due to disruptions in the supply chain, but the FDA encourages them to continue listing it, the statement said.
The vending machine industry has seen a major shift since the pandemic began, according to Roni Moore, marketing vice president for the National Automatic Merchandising Association, a vending machine trade group, The Washington Post reported.
Moore said machines in workplaces and schools have received no action, but those in police stations, medical centers and firehouses are busy like never before.
Other temporary changes the FDA has issued during the pandemic “address nutrition labeling on food packages, menu labeling, packaging and labeling of shell eggs and the distribution of eggs to retail locations,” the statement said.
But some worry these changes won’t be temporary after all.
“We have no objection to temporary flexibilities in this moment, but we view with suspicion the notion that you’d want to continue those after the emergency,” Laura MacCleery, policy director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, told The Washington Post.
People with allergies already struggling due to COVID-19
As soon as states started locking down to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, people rushed to grocery stores to stock their pantries.
This put some individuals with food allergies in a difficult situation because the only foods they could eat were gone.
Kelley Lord couldn’t find the only brand of pasta her son — who is allergic to eggs — could eat in her local grocery store in Orlando, Florida, so she had to ask a friend who lives about 400 miles away to buy it, then ship it to her, The New York Times reported.
“It’s so scary when your child has an allergy, because it’s literally a life-or-death situation,” Lord, 50, who also has food allergies, told the outlet. “You can’t substitute something else.”
Others expressed fears surrounding possible hospital-level allergic reactions because of exposure to the coronavirus.
“I am way more terrified of taking [my son] to an E.R. now than I’ve ever been,” Lisa Delmont, 35, of Jacksonville, North Carolina, told The New York Times.
This story was originally published May 30, 2020 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Beware of food labels if you have allergies; FDA again relaxes rules due to COVID-19."
