What do companies tell you about their labeling practices for sesame?

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I just spent about 1/2 hour calling some companies for dd.  As we know, sometimes companies give different answers to different people and also company policies can change with time.

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Nestle (just for candies) told me that they label for intentional sesame, but not for cross-contam.

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Hershey told me they do not treat sesame as an allergen or label specifically for it.  If you call this number today 1-800-468-1714, you will hear a nice message about how seriously they take "allergens" and how they label for "allergens".  They do not say "major food allergen" or say which allergens they actually label for .... and for that .... I think they deserve a  .

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So, I'm just wondering, what have you been told lately?

(I'm from the USA.)



Please check for yourself with companies about product safety.  Do not rely on the information in this thread to determine product safety.  Also, please consider including your country in your signature or post because labeling laws differ and company labeling policy may change from country to country.

[lakeswimr]

Mixed bag.  It can be very frustrating.  i used to get more upset and then DS got 3 other non-top 8 allergens so there is no way I'm going to ever have a company cater to our full allergy set ever.  Wont' happen.  On the other hand, two of the other non-top 8 are not commonly in foods and are pretty easy to avoid.  I sometimes wish this were Canada so companies would HAVE to tell us if sesame were in their products.

I still can't believe the results of FAAN's study that found sesame to be a low % compared with peanuts, etc.  It seems to be much more common than FAAN's study results.  i do wonder about the accuracy of their study.  I was really hoping after a frequency study was done it would show a high % and then this would have automatically required companies to label for sesame.  What the study did instead was exempt sesame officially.    

I have had companies range from being super nice and helpful and be downright rude and unhelpful when I called about sesame. 

[SilverLining]

I sometimes wish this were Canada so companies would HAVE to tell us if sesame were in their products.

Allergens are only required to be listed here when they are actually added ingredients.  No law requires labeling *may contain*.

btw, I'm not ignoring the question by the OP.  I just figured it's best if this thread be US only.  Sticking my answers in just confuses the issue. 

[lakeswimr]

It would still help rule things in and out for me.  I can't tell you how many times I have been told that they can't/won't tell me if a product has sesame or not in their 'spices' or 'natural flavor'.  it would eliminate that.  I'd still have to call about x-contam just like I do here.  Many companies here in the States label for x-contam for top 8 and so would if sesame got covered by the law, too, but since the faan study found this very low % have sesame it won't happen any time soon.

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I just figured it's best if this thread be US only.  Sticking my answers in just confuses the issue.

It doesn't have to be US only.  It helps if people put their country in their signature though. 

I travelled to Canada last year and was so happy to see sesame labelled.  I was pretty good at guessing which products were going to have voluntary sesame cross-contam warnings 

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What the study did instead was exempt sesame officially.    

Not really, imo, but it made it much harder.

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General Mills labels for the top 8 plus sesame, sunflower and mollusks for intentional and/or advisory "may contains".
It is great is that they put their allergen policy in writing and will mail or email it to you   .  I do wish they would put it on their website so that I could just link to it here.

My dd is growing up being taught that we can only trust the labels of some companies.  She knows GM well 

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Kraft treats sesame as an allergen  , but wouldn't send me a written allergen policy.  We use Kraft a lot and haven't had any problems, but I have read posts from people who have had some issues with their products.  I wish they would better explain their cross-contam and advisory labeling policies.  Again, putting their allergen policy on their website would be great. 

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Frito-Lay told me that they label for intentional sesame, but you have to read the entire ingredient list.

I was under the impression that they label for cross-contam.  This is not true.     Frito-Lay does not label for sesame cross-contamination risk.  They do currently produce a product containing sesame.

The woman I spoke with was very nice and helpful, but wow, I'm sad because we've been using their products a lot.  Will have to think this over.

[lakeswimr]

Thanks for posting this.  I think we are still pretty safe with their high volume foods like the yellow bag lays chips.  They make those in such high volume, they are NOT switching out the line all the time but rather making tons of those all at once after having cleaned the line.  Ditto other high volume things they sell. I  think there is very little chance of x-contam with those.  Do you have Cape Cod brand chips near you?   we use their stuff, too.

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I didn't ask how often they clean the line ... are you sure they always clean it after the sesame run?  If you talk with them, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know what they tell  you.

I think we do have Cape cod chips ... will look into those.

Are there other companies that you know of that label for sesame and cross-contam risk?  If I remember, I think there are a few others like maybe Dare?