Why You Need to Double Check Your ‘Safe Food’ Ingredients If You’re Allergic to Sesame
17th April 2023
Lifehacker.
The new law, called the FASTER Act, took effect as of Jan. 1, 2023. Shortly before that, an industry publication called Food Manufacturing reported that many manufacturers see the new requirements as “not simple or practical.” If the ingredients of a product don’t include sesame, the maker is required to take steps to make sure that sesame stays away from the product.
Labels that indicate the item is processed in the same facility as sesame-containing foods aren’t enough to protect the company from recalls if some sesame were to find its way into the product.
Quite naturally, rather than undergo the tedious and expensive required process to clean machinery of any possible trace of sesame before using it for food that normally doesn’t contain sesame, they just added trace amounts of sesame to all of their foods, therefore saving themselves a lot of government-mandated trouble and expense. The government, of course, didn’t see this coming.
So now people who are allergic to sesame face an incredibly constricted selection of foods, compared to before. “We’re from the government, and we’re here to help.” Thanks a lot, guys.