4 ms·

Avoiding cross-contamination (preventing any trace of sesame in a line of product) usually means reworking the product lines, separating storage, isolate worker

Avoiding cross-contamination (preventing any trace of sesame in a line of product) usually means reworking the product lines, separating storage, isolate workers working on non sesame lines etc. The cost of that is way higher than adding an ingredient in an existing product, and the business cost of losing these customers is low (allergics will be a minority). Short of media backlash, that's the lower cost move.

mindslight 4y ago
The root of the problem is the lack of timely regulation, like many things in the US. If the FDA had clamped down on this "may contain ..." legalistic garbage as soon as it started showing up (20 years ago?), then either most of those factories would have never been merged or they would have at least designed processes for assuring isolation. By waiting so long, the situation is now firmly between a rock and a hard place - the bean counters will bemoan how expensive it would be to undo all of the "optimization" they did over the past few decades. And they're not wrong! Whereas if they had been prevented from squeezing those few cents per unit in the first place, bread would be basically the same price and we wouldn't be in this situation.
- ricardobeat 4y ago
  I'm pretty sure burger buns were being made with sesame seeds 100 years ago, in the same production facility as plain bread. Or at your local bakery. Where did you get the idea that production was "merged" as an optimization?
- makeitdouble 4y ago
  It’s complicated… In most of EU we’re still on the “may contain…” train, and reality is any food maker with enough product lines will have a decent number of them with allergens. The list of major allergens is about 10~20 ingredients, and if you’re a chocolate or candy maker for instance you’ll probably hit more than half of them. I mean, even thinking of local bakeries, they’ll have a range of products that just spans so many allergens. They’ll do their best to avoid cross contamination from the start, but being _absolutely sure_ there is none is a level of commitment that is crazy high, and would be probably only achieved by completely dropping most of the allergens (no more peanut flavored chocolates, no more almonds…). My family has allergies so we have a few brands and shops we follow closely, and all their products are marked as “made in factory also using…” and “may contain traces …”. While it’s vague, we never had any issue with their products, but also know we shouldn’t eat them in situations we can’t react. That is to me the best balance that seems realistic to achieve.

mindslight 4y ago

The root of the problem is the lack of timely regulation, like many things in the US. If the FDA had clamped down on this "may contain ..." legalistic garbage as soon as it started showing up (20 years ago?), then either most of those factories would have never been merged or they would have at least designed processes for assuring isolation. By waiting so long, the situation is now firmly between a rock and a hard place - the bean counters will bemoan how expensive it would be to undo all of the "optimization" they did over the past few decades. And they're not wrong! Whereas if they had been prevented from squeezing those few cents per unit in the first place, bread would be basically the same price and we wouldn't be in this situation.

ricardobeat 4y ago
I'm pretty sure burger buns were being made with sesame seeds 100 years ago, in the same production facility as plain bread. Or at your local bakery. Where did you get the idea that production was "merged" as an optimization?
makeitdouble 4y ago
It’s complicated… In most of EU we’re still on the “may contain…” train, and reality is any food maker with enough product lines will have a decent number of them with allergens. The list of major allergens is about 10~20 ingredients, and if you’re a chocolate or candy maker for instance you’ll probably hit more than half of them. I mean, even thinking of local bakeries, they’ll have a range of products that just spans so many allergens. They’ll do their best to avoid cross contamination from the start, but being _absolutely sure_ there is none is a level of commitment that is crazy high, and would be probably only achieved by completely dropping most of the allergens (no more peanut flavored chocolates, no more almonds…). My family has allergies so we have a few brands and shops we follow closely, and all their products are marked as “made in factory also using…” and “may contain traces …”. While it’s vague, we never had any issue with their products, but also know we shouldn’t eat them in situations we can’t react. That is to me the best balance that seems realistic to achieve.