Federal food safety regulators said Tuesday they have warned a major U.S. bakery company to stop using labels that say its products contain potentially dangerous allergens when they do not.
Inspectors from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) discovered that Bimbo Bakeries USA included ingredients such as sesame or nuts on the labels even though they were not present in the food.
Bimbo Bakeries USA has brands such as Sara Lee, Oroweat, Thomas’, Entenmann’s and Ball Park.
Under FDA regulations, such labeling is “misleading,” FDA officials said in a letter sent this month to officials at the company’s headquarters in Horsham, Pennsylvania.
“Food labels must be truthful and not misleading,” officials said.
The warning followed inspections late last year at Bimbo’s factories in Phoenix, Arizona, and Topeka, Kansas, where Sara Lee and Brownberry breads are made.
Additionally, FDA officials indicated that allergen labeling is “not a substitute” for preventing cross-contamination in factories.
Activists from the nonprofit group FARE, Food Allergy Research & Education, said this type of labeling “does a disservice” to the estimated 33 million people in the United States who suffer from food allergies.
According to Sung Poblete, executive director of FARE, these consumers should always be aware of foods that can cause life-threatening allergic reactions.
“Our community relies on accurate product labeling for their health and safety,” Poblete said in an email. “These findings about Bimbo Bakeries products undermine your confidence and further limit your options.”
Bimbo, a food industry giant based in Mexico City, claims to be the largest commercial baking company in the United States.
Company officials said in an email that they “take their role in protecting allergen-sensitive consumers very seriously” and are in contact with the FDA to resolve the issue.
Nutritional information would be printed on the front of the packaging, according to the proposal.
The concern about the labels of Bimbo and other companies is due to a law that came into force in 2022 that added sesame to the list of allergens that must appear on packaging.
Because it can be difficult and expensive to keep sesame in one part of a baking plant away from another, some companies began adding small amounts of sesame to products that did not previously contain the ingredient to avoid liability and costs.
FDA officials said that violated the spirit, but not the substance, of the federal regulations.
Some companies, like Bimbo, began to include allergens such as sesame on labels as a “precaution” in case of cross contamination.
FDA officials acknowledged Tuesday that statements that a product “may contain” certain allergens “could be considered truthful and not misleading.”
Bimbo executives have until July 8 to report on the measures taken to solve the problem or explain why the labeling does not violate FDA regulations.
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