Whenever I find a new food product – actually, any product – that appears to be safe for me and my allergies, I read the ingredients roughly *a million times*. I read them over and over in the supermarket, I read them when I’m unpacking the shopping, and then often the product sits on the kitchen side while I re-read the ingredients again over the course of a few days. Or weeks. Or months. Okay, admittedly, sometimes the anxiety takes over and I never get over that first hurdle so it just sits there going out of date while I try to convince myself I will eat it eventually. But that’s not the point of this – the point is, when we (as people with allergies) try something new, we’re on high alert for ingredients we may have missed or a warning hidden somewhere on the label. But chances are, we don’t do the same for the products we constantly use.
When I was little, there was a book called “Lenny Learns About Food Labels” about a lion and his dad buying some animal crackers, only to find out the ingredients had changed to include milk – right before he ate a big mouthful. That taught me an important lesson from a young age about remembering to regularly read the ingredients of my food, even if I ate it often. I was reminded of that lesson today, whilst putting away my shopping. I glanced at the ingredients of one of my favourite food products, Crosta & Mollica’s piadina flatbreads, and noticed that the ‘may contain’ section seemed a little longer than usual. I paused, and took a look. I was right – they’d added that it now “may contain traces of mustard seed” as well as soy (which had been there before). Now, that’s fine for me, as I’m not allergic to mustard, but it did hit me that it could just as easily have been one of my allergens. And if that had been the case, I may have eaten it without noticing and potentially had a reaction.
As I looked around the packet, I couldn’t see any more obvious indication that something had changed in the allergen information. Except, of course I couldn’t – there aren’t any rules or regulations that say companies must warn consumers that their ‘may contain’ warning has changed. When there are ingredient changes, some companies will put a sticker on the front of their packaging to indicate that the recipe for the product has changed. This is great – and exactly what is needed – it’s extremely helpful and a good reminder to double-check the ingredients. However, my experience today (whilst uneventful) made me think that this should be the case for ‘may contain’ notices too. Today wasn’t the first time I’ve looked at a product and realised there was an addition to the ‘may contain’ list.
And whilst it is still ultimately my responsibility to check food labels to keep myself safe, I’d really love it if companies made it that little bit easier to do so.
What do you think? What are your experiences with food labelling and ingredient changes?
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