Sesame heads-up

[petrea_mitchell]

This year, sesame was added to the list of major allergens that have to be called out on labels in the US. The Washington Post reports that many food companies have responded by... adding sesame to their products.

The reasoning:

Some in the food industry say adding sesame flour is the safest path forward. They contend that they can’t sufficiently clean their equipment to guarantee it is free of sesame, as the Faster Act requires. And, under federal labeling rules, they can’t state that their products contain sesame unless the items actually contain it — so they’re adding sesame and labeling it.

So there are now a ton of products that people allergic to sesame used to be able to eat and now can't.

One company pointed out for actually honoring the spirit of the law and making sure no sesame cross-contamination occurs is, believe it or not, McDonald's. I've found that its menu is pretty friendly to my food sensitivities, so I'm actually not surprised.