Health Options Alan Titchenal & Joannie Dobbs

Allergen labeling law
will save lives

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Good news is on the horizon for most food allergy sufferers. The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 has been signed into law and will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2006.

An estimated 2 percent of adults and 4 to 8 percent of children have true food allergies. For these people, the labeling changes required by this law not only will make life easier, but will even save lives.

Question: What does this act require?

Answer: Food labels will be have to clearly identify all ingredients derived from the eight major types of foods that cause food allergies. These include milk, eggs, fish, shellfish (crab, lobster, shrimp, etc.), tree nuts, peanuts, wheat and soybeans. Also, specific type of fish, shellfish or tree nuts will be identified.

Ingredients are now listed by common chemical names, but few people are able to associate these names with the ingredient's source. Under the new law, a label for a food that contains casein, for example, will be required to indicate that this protein comes from milk. This will make the label longer but more user-friendly.

Also, because even traces of some foods can have serious effects on people with allergies, labels will need to indicate the possibility of the presence of an allergenic food. For example, when a product is processed with equipment that also processed a nut-containing product, the possibility of peanut being present will have to be indicated. Some food manufacturers already indicate this by stating, "May contain traces of peanuts."

Q: Until 2006, what ingredients can indicate the presence of allergens?

A: Here are common examples, listed by type of food source:

» Milk: Casein, caseinates, whey, lactose, nougat, Simplesse, some nondairy creamers

» Eggs: Albumin, globulin, ovalbulin, Simplesse

» Fish: Surimi, kamaboku, Worcestershire, some steak sauces

» Shellfish: Extracts made from crab, crayfish, lobster, prawn or shrimp

» Tree nuts : Nut butters, extracts, pine nuts

» Wheat: Gluten, durum, seminolina, bran, kamut, seitan, spelt, flours, starches, bran, farina

» Soy: Lecithin, protein isolates, TVP (texturized vegetable protein), shoyu, tofu, tempeh, miso, edamame

Q: Does this law protect all sufferers of food allergies?

A: The new law will cover about 90 percent of all food allergies. One allergy not covered by this law is corn allergy. Fortunately, this allergy is relatively rare, but because so many ingredients are derived from corn, it can be a difficult allergy to manage.

Those allergic to foods not covered by the new law will need to continue to be very cautious in selecting their foods and to seek guidance from allergists.

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See the Columnists section for some past articles.

Alan Titchenal, Ph.D., C.N.S. and Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S. are nutritionists in the Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, UH-Manoa. Dr. Dobbs also works with the University Health Services and prepares the nutritional analyses marked with an asterisk in this section.

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