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Vegan products not always safe for people with dairy allergy, watchdog says
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2024
83 points (92.8% liked)
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‘May contain’ should never have been allowed in food labelling. It’s lazy and dangerous and out there as a get out of jail free card for food manufacturers
Cross-contamination is always a risk in shared factories, hence why "May contain" needs to exist - they're listing known allergens the factory is handling. The vegan / vegetarian labelling supports a dietary choice rather than allergy advise.
As the article highlights, "free-from" labelling has more stringent controls and requirements to eliminate cross-contamination. It's the "free-from" products labels people should be seeking if they require it to be allergen-free.
It's "may contain" because the factory producing it also produces other products that do contain milk, nuts and whatever. The production line will be cleaned according to the (inter)national standards when switching production, but that doesn't mean there is 0% chance of cross contamination. It's just extremely low chance.
Source: factory tour at Norway's largest chocolate producer
Wait why not? Or do you mean that the terminology is off or? And how is it get out of jail free card? If the label is there then it has been made in a factory where the manufacturer cannot guarantee cross-contamination free product. Seems perfectly fine to me, most people have no issue with that. If you are very allergic to dairy for instance then obviously you should not use these products. Same as with tons of allergies.
In fact, many allergy charities view it as badly flawed, so I don’t know who the ‘most people’ are that you are talking about.
https://www.narf.org.uk/blog/we-have-a-big-problem-with-may-contain-labels
https://www.coeliac.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/news/precautionary-allergen-labelling-the-may-contain-consultation/
https://www.godairyfree.org/food-and-grocery/may-contain-statements
https://www.allergyuk.org/its-time/
So none of the links say that the statement is "badly flawed". Two of them are about consultation on this labeling or in allergens in general, and two mention that the labeling is a problem because it is not required / there is no clear policy behind it.
Sure, I agree that there should be a policy about when the label is required.
Edit. most people being people without life threatening or severe allergies.
It wasn’t a quote.
In any event, people can read and decide for themselves
As someone who prays to see a 'may contain' statement alongside a 'contains' statement on the potentially risky food I'd like to eat: I vehemently disagree. "May contain" seems to always mean "contains some". Without it, I'd have no way to know if there's a real risk of cross contamination.
may contain traces of cockroach