Sesame Allergy Rule Leads to Unintended Consequences

How to find sesame-free food

Food that was already on store shelves before 2023 will not be removed or relabeled to declare sesame as an allergen. So, depending on shelf life, some products may not be labeled for sesame despite the new labeling requirements.

“If you’ve eaten the food before, it’s probably still OK. If you’ve never had the food before, I would avoid it.” Otherwise, a failsafe method would be to avoid manufactured or processed food, said Jonathan Spergel, chief of the allergy program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Manufacturers can still change the ingredients in their products at any time, so it’s a good idea to check the ingredient list every time you buy a product if you or someone in your household has a food allergy. If you’re not sure whether a product contains a potential allergen, it’s best to either not buy the product or ask the manufacturer directly before purchasing it, according to the FDA.

“For manufacturers this can be a positive if they could reassure the public that there is no sesame in there rather than adding it in, because there are a significant number of Americans with food allergies and sesame allergies,” Mendez said.

Other food allergens

In addition to sesame, the ingredients classified as major food allergens are milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat and soybeans.

“We recognize that food allergies are a complex public health problem impacting millions of people living in the U.S. and their families,” said an FDA spokesperson who asked not to be named by AARP. “To help protect consumers with food allergies, the FDA enforces laws that require listing of ingredients used in packaged food products so that consumers can find ingredients they are allergic, or sensitive to, in a food.”

With its new classification, the U.S. follows Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, New Zealand and the U.K., which already had established sesame labeling requirements. In reality, sesame is a more common allergen than some of the others on the list such as soy,   Spergel said.

What are food allergies?

When someone ingests something they are allergic to, their body recognizes it as a threat and produces antibodies that bind to the allergen, which then bind to mast cells, triggering allergy symptoms such as rash, runny nose, sneezing, coughing, difficulty breathing or low blood pressure. The severity of the symptoms depends on how many mast cells are released and the person’s specific allergic response, Spergel said.

For a severe or even moderate reaction, epinephrine (EpiPen) is a safe medicine that, in most instances, works quickly. Some people with mild reactions can be treated with antihistamines.

Desensitization therapy is a treatment that can help some people become less allergic to a food by slowly introducing them to small amounts of the allergen over time. This method is effective in about 60 percent of cases, but it also carries risks: Approximately 10 percent of people may experience a significant reaction, Spergel said.

It is not common for older adults to develop new food allergies as they age. However, in rare cases, certain medications can weaken the immune system and lead to food allergies. In contrast, children today are more prone to food allergies than kids were in previous generations.

“We don’t know exactly why. There’s lots of theories out there. The theories range from how we prepare the foods, the foods are different now than they were 30 years ago, how we introduce foods in the diet is different,” Spergel said. “There’s something probably that we did in the environment that changed. What exactly that thing was — whether it’s too much antibiotics, too much soap, change in our microbiome, hygiene — it’s probably a little bit of everything.”