When Product Labels Lie

Parents of kids who have allergies are careful to peruse product labels to determine whether foods contain peanuts, eggs, milk, or wheat. But as careful as they may be, there is no real assurance that the labels are telling the truth, according to a Chicago Tribune investigation. And lots of kids are getting sick or even dying as a result.

Further, the federal government is of little help because product recalls are voluntary and often badly managed, inspections and punishments are rare, and regulators, in some ways beholden to corporate interests, are either overworked or downright heartless.

For kids with severe allergies, eating is a crapshoot, and the systems in place that are meant to protect them are woefully inadequate.

The Trib's Sam Roe, in the kind of investigation that newspapers once conducted on a regular basis, created a database of 2,800 allergy-related product recalls over the past decade. The paper found that about five products a week are recalled because they contain hidden allergens.

The paper has put the database online.

The article's anecdotes are chilling and infuriating. One mother bought Wellshire Kids' Dinosaur Shapes Chicken Bites made by Wellshire Farms, specifically because the package declared, in large type, that the product was "gluten free."

Her 3-year-old had an immediate reaction—coughing, swollen eyes, difficulty breathing. The mother stuck a needle full of epinephrine into his leg and raced him to the hospital, where he recovered.

The mother "contacted both the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the food manufacturer and ... neither offered to test the chicken nuggets," according to Roe.

A USDA investigator responded to her complaint but did not test the nuggets and basically took the company's word that its products were safe. And he told her she might want to have the product tested herself.

So she did. The "gluten free" product contained high amounts of gluten. The investigator told her that he had "archived" the complaint. The company didn't respond at all. The Trib did its own testing and found that several of Wellshire Farms "gluten free" products contained gluten.

The company blamed a supplier and has temporarily discontinued the products.