Transparent Labeling Laws Are A Must

Complete and transparent labeling laws and general knowledge is desperately needed to enable people with allergies to stay safe. Food is needed to live and live well. When every meal could kill you, it makes living your life to the fullest difficult.

Currently, ingredient labels are not transparent. I have rare allergies, and companies do not have to disclose all their ingredients. Labels like “flavors,” “spices,” “starches,” and “vegetables” can be almost anything. Most of these can be plants, animals, fungus, bacteria, or minerals. They do not have to tell you and won’t, even if their food could kill you, violate your ethics, or go against your religion.

This is because there is only a limited amount of ingredients that are required to be disclosed.

Eating healthy, premade food or eating at a restaurant can be perilous because it is often unclear what foods are safe. It is hard not to be preoccupied when there is an omnipresent threat of a horrible death.

I am worried about my life. These laws and rules put my life at risk.

Food labeling laws have almost killed me. Yes, I am factual. I almost died. I went into anaphylaxis because nutmeg is not required to be disclosed.

Those pictures are of the rash that covered my body and was present inside my throat and lungs. My heart stopped functioning correctly. I was exposed to my allergen at dinner, and I had a delayed reaction by a few hours, which isn’t uncommon. It was late. If I had gone to bed, I might not have woken up.

I almost died because a tiny amount of nutmeg was mixed into some of my food. It is not just me. Millions of Americans have rare allergies. And it can be for almost any food. For example, it can be corn, rice, carrots, potatoes, pepper, and over a hundred other things.

I live my life in fear because of labeling laws. I could only be safe if I were a recluse substance farmer. I balance the real possibility of death and the quality of life every day. If I die, there is a good chance my 100% preventable death will go unnoticed by all but my closest family and friends. Simple consumer protection laws would make it so I could be safe. Instead, this administration makes it harder.

(Lise Broer talked about the lengths she goes to enable to b safe. https://medium.com/@Weresquirrel/neither-a-hoarder-nor-a-prepper-b020f720ad44 )

Food Allergies, especially rare food allergies, are a psychological burden.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs has long been used to talk about what drives human motivation. Allergies directly affect this hierarchy. When you have allergies, your basic needs conflict with each other. For example, you can choose to eat, or you can choose to breathe. Sometimes you cannot choose both.

Food threatens your ability to breathe and your circulatory system. Airborne allergies restrict you from shelters. It can make it so you can’t access restrooms. Airborne allergies make some indoor spaces inaccessible due to the risk of anaphylaxis. For a person with food allergies, safety is constantly under threat. People are not mindful of crumbs and are not careful when they prepare food. They are unaware of cross-contact issues. When you have food allergies, you never know what food could hurt you or if public surfaces are safe for allergens. Some food allergies are airborne. Airborne particles can make a building or area unsafe. It is hard to bond with friends and family when you can’t take part in meals with them.

People often assume allergies are a choice and people with them are “overly sensitive.” The general population is only aware of Hollywood myths surrounding food allergies and not reality. Food allergies are a Hollywood trope. They are used for laughs. Many people in the general public judge and exclude people with allergies instead of making accommodations.

(Cindy Kaplan talked about the problems with Hollywood's depiction of food allergies. https://medium.com/@cindyf.kaplan/can-food-allergies-be-more-than-a-hollywood-punchline-f4a6605ec26c )

A common defense of opacity in labeling laws is a corporation’s copyrights. People argue that companies need to protect their recipes. But opacity doesn’t protect recipes.

A popular television program show demonstrates why this is untrue. “The Great British Baking Show” has a “technical challenge” as part of their competition. Contestants are given all the ingredients with limited instructions. They are asked to make the dish to perfection. They are the best bakers in that country, but they struggle with this challenge.

Ingredient lists are not recipes. Ingredient lists do not have vital instructions on techniques, exact amounts, and time. Variations in oven temperature and the weather can make grandma’s “perfect cookies” less than perfect. An individual cannot figure out ingredient lists without a laboratory and food scientist. A company has resources to figure out ingredient lists. A rival company would not need a transparent label to steal a recipe.

Opacity does not protect the company from copyright infringement. And the company can still take legal action if someone duplicates their recipes. On top of that, there are already plenty of duplicates out there. Some store brands have some of the same ingredients and are made in the same factory as the name brands repackaged. This doesn’t prevent people from buying the name brand because of marketing.

Some companies already believe in transparency. FodyFood is a great example of this. FodyFood’s products list all their ingredients. For example, their tomato & basil sauce is made out of chopped tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, carrot puree, basil, sea salt.

Their vegetable soup base has salt, carrots, tomatoes, lists out every one of their spices, their oils, and makes sure you know what their starch is. They do not have unknown or unlisted “flavors,” “starches,” “oils’’ or “spices.” They have food, and they are a successful company. Transparency is possible.

Opacity only limits the consumer’s knowledge. It does not protect the company. All food labels should be transparent.