Processors Calling for Clear Labeling

Dairy Foods, Oct, 2001

The nation's capital is not a place usually associated with "straight talk," but food processors used the occasion of a recent FDA public meeting on food allergen labeling issues to call for "plain language" on food labels. "NFPA believes that it is important to present information on major food allergens in terms commonly understood by consumers," said Regina Hildwine, Senior Director of Food Labeling and Standards for the National Food Processors Association.

She said food allergen information presented in plain language terms would help food allergic consumers to recognize the foods they must avoid. However, she said NFPA thinks that plain language presentation options should not replace, but augment, current ingredient labeling requirements. She said making such declarations mandatory would require a complex round of federal rulemaking. Hildwine also addressed the issue of supplementary or advisory labeling - so-called "may contain" statements - noting that any discussion of this issue should focus initia lly on manufacturing practices. "Food processors that prepare foods that may be exposed to inadvertent contact with the eight major food allergens acknowledge that labeling is not a substitute for good manufacturing practices. Supplementary labels should be relatively rare, not increasingly common," Hildwine said.