On Tuesday, federal food safety inspectors told a top bakery in the United States to stop using labels that falsely claim their goods contain potentially harmful allergens.
Inspectors from the United States Food and Drug Administration discovered that Bimbo Bakeries USA, which owns brands like Sara Lee, Oroweat, Thomas’, Entenmann’s, and Ball Park buns and rolls, put components like sesame or tree nuts on labels even when they weren’t present in the products.
Under FDA standards, such items are “misbranded,” according to a warning letter from managers at the company’s Horsham, Pennsylvania, headquarters earlier this month.
“Food labels must be truthful and not misleading,” regulators stated. The warning came after inspections late last year at Bimbo operations in Phoenix, Arizona, and Topeka, Kansas, which produce Sara Lee and Brownberry bread.
Additionally, FDA experts stated that allergen labeling is “not a substitute” for minimizing factory cross-contamination.
Advocates from the nonprofit group FARE, Food Allergy Research & Education, said such labeling “does a disservice” to the estimated 33 million people in the United States who have food allergies. According to FARE’s CEO, Sung Poblete, consumers must be continually aware of items that can trigger potentially fatal allergic responses.
“Our community relies on accurate product labeling for their health and safety,” Poblete wrote in an email. “These findings about Bimbo Bakeries’ products undermine their trust and further limit their choices.”
Bimbo, a food business headquartered in Mexico City, claims to be the largest commercial baking firm in the United States. In an email, company officials stated that they “take their role in protecting consumers with allergen sensitivities very seriously” and are working with the FDA to rectify the issue.
Concerns about labels at Bimbo and other companies arose due to a regulation that went into force in 2022, adding sesame to the list of significant allergens that need to be indicated on packaging.
Because keeping sesame in one part of a baking plant separate from another may be difficult and expensive, several companies began adding small amounts of sesame to goods that did not previously contain the ingredient to avoid responsibility and cost. FDA officials stated that this violated the spirit of federal regulations but not the wording.
Some companies, like Bimbo, began marking allergies such as sesame on labels as a “precaution” in the event of cross-contamination.
FDA officials confirmed on Tuesday that comments that a product “may contain” specific allergies “could be considered truthful and not misleading.” Bimbo officials have until July 8 to identify efforts taken to address the problem — or to explain why the labeling does not breach FDA guidelines.
