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The Food Labeling Scam
Are food manufacturers and government officials so callous that they are actually using children as guinea pigs when it comes to food labeling?
Apparently so, according to the Chicago Tribune’s 2008 investigative report on hidden allergens found in popular food products.1 Hidden food allergens are part of the reason that an estimated 30,000 Americans are rushed to the emergency room each year and another 150 die — most of whom are children.
The issue was brought to light when 3-year-old Patrick Pridemore ate Wellshire Kids’ Dinosaur Shapes Chicken Bites and began having trouble breathing. His mother Peggy jabbed his leg with an epi needle and rushed him to the hospital, where thankfully, he recovered.
Patrick has a severe allergy to wheat and the packaging label said the product was “gluten-free” (containing no wheat, rye or barley proteins). Mrs. Pridemore meticulously scrutinizes packaging labels to ensure that Patrick is not exposed to gluten.
Amazingly, when she contacted Wellshire and the USDA to report Patrick’s health crisis, neither organization would test the product to confirm the presence of gluten. The Tribune then sent the chicken bites to a leading food allergy lab on two separate occasions and both times gluten was found. But this was still not enough for the product to be recalled or relabeled by the manufacturer. Whole Foods was the only retail outlet to remove the chicken bites and two other suspected Wellshire products from its stores.2
The logical question to ask now is who’s accountable for accurate food labeling? And the shocking answer is no one. Government regulators such as the FDA allow food companies to police themselves when it comes to package labeling and recalls. And while larger manufacturers are more diligent about testing their products for allergens, smaller companies often do no testing or very little because they are not required to do so.
When products are recalled, both the manufacturer and the FDA are often lax when it comes to issuing statements and press releases to the public. And when a press release is issued to the public, it’s often watered down to the point that the true health risks are obscured.
Even worse, the Tribune report found that nearly 50% of the allergy-related food recalls in the past 10 years were not disclosed to consumers even though 2,800 products were recalled.
So, where does that leave the 11 million adults and children in the US who have food and digestive allergies? For all intents and purposes, pretty much left to fend for themselves.
And that’s where Eat, Learn, Live (www.ellfoundation.org) (ELL) comes in. ELL is a non-profit organization that advocates for more complete and accurate food allergen labeling.3 Currently, it may be the best resource yet for consumers who depend on accurate food labeling to prevent severe allergic reactions.
Here’s how they can help. If you log on to their website, you’ll find a list of current FDA recalls. You’ll also be able to check their database of food allergy incidents reported by members. This is important because the incidents may have been ignored by the manufacturer — meaning that high-risk products are still on store shelves.
ELL encourages consumers “to share their mislabeling experiences by submitting a report through its website,” which is then shared with the public (your personal information is protected). It also provides information on the steps to take if you have had an allergic reaction to a mislabeled food — including how to file a complaint with the FDA and manufacturer.
If you want to have an ingredient analysis done on the suspected product allergen, the contact information for the University of Nebraska’s Food Allergy Research & Resource Program (FARRP) is provided. The good news is that the service is free if an allergic reaction occurred because of a mislabeled food.
The CDC reports that 3 million American children under the age of 18 have a food or digestive allergy — and that number is growing at an alarming rate. From the Tribune’s report, we know that we can’t sit back and wait for food manufacturers and the FDA to protect them from life-threatening allergic reactions due to mislabeling. What we can do as private citizens is to get involved by helping one another avoid health disasters on websites such as the ELL.
References
- http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6127272.html.
- http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-whole_foodsdec31,0,4055580.story.
- http://ellfoundation.org/labeling-complaints/.
- http://www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/2008/r081022.htm.
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(9 votes, average: 4.44 out of 5)
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It would seem that the FDA and the USDA are the SEC and FED of the food Industry. I wonder who will be the ‘Lehmann Bros’, the ‘GM’, how many Private Jets and ‘Ponzi’ schemes, and how high the Corporate Executive Pay will go. So far you have indicated who the John Q are.
Could it be that the real problem is how the public ’service’ is organized. Where do the fringe benefits come from or is it just plain incompetence or attitude.
It’s amazing to me that the FDA is so so tough on supplement manufacturers when they tell the truth about their supplements, yet totally lax about food corporations that don’t tell the truth.
We could erase almost all diseases from our planet by teaching people the correct way to eat. The RDA and food pyramid don’t do the trick at all.
Weston A. Price told the truth about what we should be eating. Read that site and Natural News and Mercola about what you should actually eat — whole foods, very little processed foods, all organic.
This is a great article. It informs Americans who are unaware. It gives you a place to check out recalls to safeguard your family, and a place to report mislabeling for the safety of others.
I gave this article five stars. Good for you Health Breakthrough. Actually, I like the idea that Americans are watching out for Americans.
The FDA does not impress me to say the least. It has been laxin my opinion for a very long long time. All you have to do is look at the pharmaceutical world and all of it’s medicine side affects to know that.
People who have allergies, should probably cook their own food to be safe. It’s more trouble, but safer. When it comes to bits of chicken pressed into dinosaur shapes, I would personally think of that as mystery meat, and certainly would never give it to my child who has life threatening allergies.
I don’t mean to be judgemental toward anyone, [Moms today are extremely busy]Nor do I mean any disrespect to anyone. It’s just how I feel about those types of product in general.
You can take a chicken cutlet, cut it with a cookie cutter, bread it with anything you deem healthy and cook it. You can do that for your child on your day off and place in a freezer. That’s the only way to assure the safety of that sort of food in my opinion.
I very glad to see some articles about products people are allergic to, being put out on the internet to make readers aware of what our FDA is not doing much about.It is also great you give a website of ELL, who makes it possible for people to list their problems and help bring allergic products to the public.
There is a product that is about the most dangerous substance added to many thousands of products in packaged foods.
It is (MSG) Mono sodium Glutamate, It is a Neuro Toxin and an excito-toxin that kills brain cells.
It has no unearthly use other than being a taste enhancer, that tricks the brain into thinking the food it is added to is great tasting.
My wife has had seizures for 35 years and the doctors have been prescribing these strong drugs that have never stopped her seizures or even slowed them down.
Recently we discovered that it has been MSG and Aspartame that has been causing these grand mall seizures most of her life.
We now check everything we buy or eat to make sure there is no MSG or Aspartame in it. There are many additives in products that have hidden ingredients of MSG we have a list of these,we keep with us at all times.
But her seizures have now stopped since we stopped her eating anything with those two neurotoxins in it.
I think the FDA should ban any product with these two chemical toxins, to make life a bit better for the poor souls that are allergic to them. I have placed those hidden products of MSG on my blog for anyone that wants to print them out http://www.my-healthy.info/4u
Great article, it gives us some options as to where to get information!
A big thank you for this article because we certainly cannot count of the FDA to look out for the safety of the public! they could not care less! they canot be trusted so it is important to have this kind of information so that if enough people register complaints we can have a voice and be heard and push for change!
Thanks, this could be lifesaving and we should share. It is so good to know that this service is available.