People with food allergies depend heavily on the information provided on food labels to protect them from potentially fatal attacks, but new research shows that there is a still a long way to go before the level of information provided on labels is completely effective.
A group of researchers led by Preeti Joshi from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York told the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Annual meeting earlier this week that complex terms, such as casein or whey for milk, and vague notations, such as 'may contain', used on labels could compromise the ability of people with food allergies to avoid allergenic foods.
Dr Joshi's team sought to determine the accuracy of label reading among parents of children with food allergies. Ninety-one sets of parents filled out a questionnaire showing food labels taken from a variety of widely available commercial products. They answered yes/no responses as to the presence of the food their children needed to avoid. Peanut was the most common restricted food (82 children) followed by milk, egg, soy, fish and wheat.
Only four of the 60 parents of milk allergic children were able to identify all 14 products with labels indicating milk protein. Only six of 27 parents of soy allergic children correctly identified allergenic soy protein in all nine products.
Peanut was identified correctly in all five products by 44 of the 82 parents restricting peanut. The most common error was related to a chocolate product containing 'trace peanuts'. Wheat and egg were correctly identified by most parents (14/16 and 42/45 respectively).
Ninety per cent of the families with perfect label identification for milk or soy had previously attended the allergy clinic and had met with the dietitian. In contrast, only 43 per cent with at least one incorrect response had met with the dietician. Membership in the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network tended to be higher in parents with perfect scores (90 per cent vs. 65 per cent). In addition to missing soy in some products, 13 out of 27 parents incorrectly considered foods containing soybean oil or soy lecithin as allergenic.
Researchers concluded that with current labelling practices, most parents are unable to identify common allergenic foods, a particular problem for milk and soy. Parents who previously met with a dietician were more likely to accurately interpret the labels. These results strongly support the need for improved labelling with plain English terminology and allergen warnings as well as the need for diligent education of patients on label reading based on current labelling practices.