On Friday evening, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued new guidance regarding the labeling of ingredients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The guidance is designed to make it possible for manufacturers to substitute ingredients in their products without changing the label when they find it difficult to source an ingredient.
This new guidance makes it more difficult for food allergy sufferers to trust ingredient labeling, injecting even more uncertainty into a labeling regime that was already dangerously vague. We issued our analysis of how the new guidance will affect the food allergy community; read it here.
We at SnackSafely.com can help alleviate some of this new uncertainty.
In 2014, we started the SnackSafely.com Manufacturer Partnership program with a handful of food manufacturers. That partnership has grown into 130 participating manufacturers today. In exchange for free listings in our publications, each manufacturer must agree to disclose precisely how they process the 11 allergens we track (the Top 8, sesame, mustard, and gluten) for each product including shared line/facility information.
As agreed to in our Terms of Service, each manufacturer is required to notify us immediately if they change the formulation of any of their products. We then will issue an advisory on our site and via our newsletter.
This means that you can trust the listings for over 2000 products in our Allergence product screening service, Safe Snack Guide, and Custom Safe Snack Guides. These services are free to use and are valuable resources to help you find products that meet your family’s allergen restrictions.
We have also reached out to our partner manufacturers requesting they pledge not to make substitutions to their product ingredients for the duration of the pandemic per the FDA’s relaxation of ingredient labeling rules. We will publish these pledges on our site and the manufacturer listings in Allergence.
SnackSafely.com stands with you now as always and will keep you apprised of further news regarding the FDA and this action. We suggest you join our mailing list to keep up to date on all food allergy news.
Here is a current list of our partner manufacturers. Click on a company logo to learn more about that company and their products:
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