Did you miss me last week?  I flew to Chicago to attend a food allergens/gluten conference specific to food manufacturers. 

There were 41 companies represented with anywhere from 1 to 12 attendees per company.  The companies ranged in size from tiny, like Nonuttin’ Foods, to large, like Kraft.  Amongst those attendees, I met people who had different roles in the companies such as quality assurance manager for 39 facilities across the United States to Consumer Relations people, the ones who answer your questions when you phone in about food allergens.

The conference was put on by FARRP, the Food Allergy Research lab at the University of Nebraska.  FARRP and its founder, Dr. Steven Taylor, are considered to be among the world’s foremost scientists in the area of food allergens.  Dr. Taylor is currently involved in an international research group looking at threshold limits for what is considered safe parts per million for those with food allergies.  I had blogged about that research a few weeks ago.

I found the conference fascinating with 2 very full days and a full 2.5 inch binder.  Anne Munoz-Furlong, the founder of FAAN, gave a wonderful explanation (and, for me, tear inducing) of what the food allergic individual/family goes through.  To my delight, I found the audience very receptive to all of the presenters from FAAN to FARRP and the many major food company representatives who shared their allergen safe practices.  These details included their practices for cleaning, testing and labeling as well as case studies for when consumer recalls needed to be done because of allergen contamination.

From a consumer’s point of view for my allergic child, I felt that the attitudes of the companies who presented were very positive towards making sure their products were safe for allergic consumers.  While many in the audience wanted to simply put “May contains” on different items in the case studies presented, more than one major company representative indicated that doing so would take out an entire line of a product for anybody with that food allergy.  Rather, they were more inclined to do everything in their power to ensure that lines were more carefully cleaned and tested to keep as many products safe for the food allergic as they possibly could.

Whil we hear every day about recalls from companies not following good manufacturing practices, there are many out there who are going above and beyond to make sure we do have choice when we go to the supermarket.  Granted, many of these companies do have recalls in their past but we all know that there are no guarantees when human errors or accidents happen beyond our limit of control.  Overwhelmingly, these companies are very conscious of their responsibilities and do care very much about providing great, safe product to all consumers.

So the bottom line?  When a large company puts a “May contain…” on their foods, heed the warning.  They really are concerned that there is a risk and will not put on the “May contain…” if at all possible.  Yes, there are companies that are concerned more about liability but they are much fewer and further between than you might think and certainly not representative of the companies that presented at this conference.  It’s a thought to keep in mind.