Cooperative approach required for sesame seed labeling rule challenges

KANSAS CITY — From the moment legislation was proposed to add sesame seeds to the roster of major allergens, commercial bakers knew they would face a new level of compliance challenges. A clash between Bimbo Bakeries USA, the Food and Drug Administration and two non-governmental organizations reveals the depth of difficulties created by the law.

The Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education and Research (FASTER) Act was passed in 2021 and became effective in January 2023, requiring sesame to be labeled as an allergen. Bakers have taken a variety of approaches to ensure compliance with the law and to keep consumers safe, in some cases replacing sesame in formulations. Many sesame-topped or containing baked foods are core products, though. When they are produced, bakers struggle to ensure production lines do not have a trace of sesame remaining, even after vigorous cleaning.

At the American Society of Baking’s BakingTech earlier this year, Nathan Mirdamadi, a senior food safety specialist, Commercial Food Sanitation, likened the challenge to what travelers experience after a beach vacation. “You’ll be finding sand in your suitcase probably on your next trip,” he said. “It just finds a place to hide.” Offering its perspective on the scope of the challenge, the American Bakers Association has noted commercial ovens are often several hundred feet long and has urged the FDA to establish allergen thresholds for sesame.

The FDA has yet to do so, and in June, issued a warning letter accusing Bimbo Bakeries USA of stating that labels on four Sara Lee bread varieties (three under the Artesano brand and one Delightful) baked in a Topeka, Kan., plant include sesame seeds in the ingredient panel and “contains” labels even though sesame seed isn’t an ingredient in the formulations.

Responding to the warning, Bimbo offered a thorough, thoughtful explanation for how the company was dealing with sesame seeds to comply with FASTER. Bimbo said its decision-making has been guided by an overriding objective of “protecting consumers with allergen sensitivities.”

As an example of its approach, the company said that even though its Phoenix baking plant doesn’t use sesame in its bread lines, it does bake the four Sara Lee bread varieties cited by the FDA that are produced in other facilities on lines with sesame-containing products. Making sesame allergen declarations on the label in Phoenix was determined by Bimbo as “the most protective approach for sesame-allergic consumers.”

Keeping consumers safe is complicated for baking companies like Bimbo operating a regional distribution model. The system results in a situation in which a consumer may have confidence that a particular brand is sesame-seed-free in one part of the country but perhaps when traveling may be unaware the same loaf has an allergen declaration. Imagine, for example, that a child with a sesame allergy travels to visit a relative who may not have the same understanding of allergens as a parent. The child says, “I can eat the bread, Grandma. We have it at home.” Maybe not. Even conscientious consumers do not read every label every time.

Disappointingly, responses to BBU’s approach have not been constructive. The FDA implied BBU was using a labeling gimmick to avoid Good Manufacturing Practices. The Center for Science in the Public Interest inexplicably suggested the approach was chosen to “evade costly recalls when an undeclared allergen was discovered.” Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE) accused BBU of “defending its poor behavior under the guise of feigning concern for this patient community.”

Grandstanding like the FDA’s and the NGOs’ does nothing to keep consumers safe or deal with the real challenges faced by BBU and others. Constructive cooperation is urgently needed between the food processing industry, the FDA and groups like FARE whose mission is to improve the quality of life for people with food allergies. It is only when stakeholders commit to working together respectfully will commonsense steps such as appropriate tolerance thresholds be adopted to deal with the evolving food allergy landscape.