Removing some precautionary food labels that indicate non-dangerous traces of certain substances could allow patients to consume foods that were previously prohibited
Can you die from food allergies? Recent news events demonstrate this. Between two and four people a year in Italy lose their lives because they make the mistake of ingesting a food to which they know they are allergic. Errors that can depend on various reasons:
1.distraction
2. labeling errors: the allergenic food not correctly reported on the label of the product that the consumer finds on the supermarket shelves
3. change in composition of a habitually consumed food: the patient no longer reads the label because he is used to buying that product, but the composition has been changed and the consumer is misled.
Certainly life for people suffering from food allergies is complex. With a sword of Damocles over their heads – due to the risk of serious reactions at any moment – they suffer the torment of Tantalus: they desire foods that are within their reach, but they cannot eat them. The precautionary labeling on the food they would like prevents them from doing so. In fact, on many foods that do not contain, for example, milk, eggs or hazelnuts, it is written that this food could contain… or: produced in a factory where they also produce…. or even possible presence of traces of….. While indicating the presence of allergenic ingredients is mandatory by law, the practice of precautionary labeling is not regulated by any law.
Recently the WHO, together with the FAO, has attempted to regulate this matter. A working group has indicated that below a certain concentration it is not appropriate to include precautionary labelling. This concentration is taken from the average of the reactivity thresholds of food allergic people, that is, it is calculated on the basis of the concentrations of food allergens to which subjects with these conditions react. The calculations to establish these thresholds are extremely precautionary.
In December the World Allergy Organization held a symposium, organized by the Allergy Unit of the Bambino Ges pediatric hospital, entitled Hunger in Abundance. In the context of the World Congress of Allergy, initiatives to regulate precautionary labeling were discussed. Contributing to the debate is a study recently published by the Allergology Unit of the Bambino Ges pediatric hospital, documenting that children with severe allergies to milk may not have reactions if exposed to quantities of milk exceeding even 5 times the indicated thresholds. Thirty children with milk anaphylaxis were subjected to load tests with pralines containing traces of milk, at concentrations ranging from 8 to 35 mg of total protein/kg of food. These quantities exceeded 1.5-10 times the thresholds suggested by the FAO/WHO consultation.
The study indicates that there is some room for maneuver in which food manufacturers could avoid making precautionary indications. If its results were confirmed, a reduction in precautionary food labeling could be envisaged. For children with food allergies and their families it would be a great benefit, because it would give them back the possibility of consuming foods that were previously prohibited. Furthermore, by simplifying the labels, errors in judgment that can lead to tragic consequences would be less likely.
*Alessandro Fiocchi, head of Allergology, Bambino Ges Pediatric Hospital
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January 22, 2024 (changed January 22, 2024 | 2.55 pm)
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