Sesame declaration in the USA
At the beginning of November, the US FDA published draft guidance calling for the voluntary declaration of sesame on product labels.
Currently, in the USA, milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts and soybeans are recognised as major food allergens. Each allergen must be declared on product labels using its common or usual name.
In 2014, the FDA received a petition from several medical professionals, consumer advocacy groups and the Centre for Science in the Public Interest, requesting the labelling of sesame as an allergen. Subsequent investigations, prevalence data and adverse event reports indicated that sesame is an emerging allergen in the US population.
Under the current US regulations, when sesame is used in a spice mix or as a flavourant, it is not necessary to declare it in a product’s ingredient list. Spices and flavours may be listed as ‘spice’ and ‘flavour’ only.
To mitigate the risk to sesame-allergic US citizens, the FDA published this piece of guidance:
“The information available to FDA indicates that the reported prevalence of sesame allergies in the US population appears to have increased. Furthermore, when reactions to sesame occur, they can be relatively severe, and adverse event reports submitted in response to the notice reported reactions associated with products containing undeclared sesame. As explained above, sesame can be included in ‘flavours’ and ‘spices’ and therefore is sometimes not listed specifically on labels. Thus, we recommend that manufacturers, as a voluntary matter, clearly declare sesame in the ingredient list when it is used in foods as a ‘flavour’ or ‘spice’ in a parenthetical following the spice or flavour, such as ‘spice (sesame)’, ‘spices (including sesame)’, ‘flavour (sesame)’ or ‘flavours (including sesame)’. If a term is used for a food that is or contains sesame, such as tahini, we recommend that sesame be included in a parenthesis, e.g. ‘tahini (sesame)’ in the ingredient list. This voluntary declaration of all sources of sesame in the ingredient list will help consumers, especially those allergic to sesame, avoid foods that could cause an allergic reaction.”
Please follow the following links to the full article and guidance document:
https://www.fda.gov/media/143521/download
In the case of products being exported to the USA, you must label your product in accordance with the requirements of the destination country; this includes correct allergen labelling, as required.