Please feel free to quote me. To give you more information about my son's reactions, one drop of a soy sauce caused his lips to swell big and eye swelling and hives and vomiting. One corn chip that was about 1/4 cm by 1/2 cm caused repetitive vomiting, stomach pain, and hives. I did not use the epi pen either time in part because according to the label, both foods should have been safe. Neither one had 'spice' or 'natural flavor' or any ambiguous words on the ingredient list. I called both companies and they both said that they didn't know sesame was an allergen, did not treat it as an allergen or clean for it and that there was definitely sesame in non-sesame foods. For me it isn't just about getting sesame labeled but also about getting companies to understand that sesame is even an allergen. I know labeling laws don't cover cross contamination but companies do actively try to avoid cross contamination with the top 8.
I do think the FDA could be considered right that if you do this for sesame, what is to stop having to do it for all foods. And it should be done for all foods. People can be allergic to any food and should not have to go through what I did and what my son did. However, sesame is unique in a couple ways. One way is the potency of sesame. Sesame and other seeds are super potent, as potent as peanut. I first read about this, *I believe*, in Dr. Young's 'Peanut Allergy Answer Book'. I believe it was in the first edition. I am not sure that the second edition has this. Apparently the 3rd edition does not from what I hear. But I have also read about it elsewhere and am asking someone at KWFA about this. If you do not have a source that talks about the potency issue, you might contact Dr. Young or, one of the allergists who signed the petition might provide a source.
The second thing unique about sesame is that it does seem to have the frequency. It has long been called the 9th most common food allergen. While food allergies vary from country to country in their frequency, Canada and the USA almost certainly should have very, very similar, if not identical lists. Sesame is a top allergen in Canada. I think Dr. Wood is another good source. The allergists who signed the petition could cite the approximate % of their patients with FAs who deal with sesame. We could also do an informal poll at KWFA on this topic. While not scientific, this would give us a rough estimate of how prevalent sesame is. Last I knew, KWFA had over 60,000 members so is a big pool poll. I seriously question the results of the last prevalence study that was tagged onto that peanut study. The results do not match what Dr. Woods says is true about his patients and it doesn't match was I seem to see at KWFA. My understanding is that a real frequency study would be very costly.
I think if all seeds were grouped together there would be numbers over many in the top 8 and I think that is probably already true of sesame alone.
If the only question is whether a food is an allergen then everything should be labeled as all foods can cause anaphylaxis. I don't think that is what the point of this petition is, though.
The last thing that might be special about sesame is the types of reactions it tends to cause. Any food can cause anapylaxis but a study found that certain tree nuts are the most likely foods to cause the most severe of reactions. I believe but am not certain that the same study listed seeds as a food most likely to cause very severe reactions.
Other foods, such as egg, certainly can cause anapylaxis and must be treated very carefully, but GI issues like a stomach ache and vomiting are common reactions to egg-allergic children.
I know this article was published a few years ago (the one about the foods most likely to cause the most serious of reactions). If you cite that, it would be helpful. Again, the allergists in the group might know this study. There is someone at KWFA (well, several people) who are very good about saving such links and studies so if you want me to ask them, please let me know.
Please use anything I have written that might be helpful.
@lakeswimr - You are so very right on all fronts - I remember calling companies about my daughter's oat allergy and having them say "isn't that gluten free?" and wondering how they could be in the business of food without getting the basics. I was surprised that after a long period of time talking about the life and death impact of knowing about the presence of a known allergen (they did not deny that sesame was an allergen), they wanted to imply that if FALCPA covered 90% of allergens for people, it would be some sort of slippery slope to cover more. At one point Brian suggested a "seeds" label that would group sesame, mustard, etc. like the "tree nuts" classification which I was puzzled by but I think it was a signal that the conversation had veered into a question of prevalence. They wanted data on how many people have sesame allergy but CSPI's representatives accurately (to me, anyway) stated that the only question should be "is this an allergen?" and if so, it needs to be regulated through labeling and to come up on an existing inspection framework. Potency was one of our big talking points and I think it has to continue to be one. May I save what you wrote for the next time I talk with CSPI? Thank you so much for sharing.
