In The New York Times Sunday edition today there was a comment in the Op-Ed section where the author, Timothy Egan, lamented the use of “Gluten-Free” food label in foods. He said that this label is only intended for less than 1 percent of the population and implied that it should be removed as a warning label requirement in foods. He said that people purchase gluten-free products simply because they think it’s healthy – aka ‘health food’. People who don’t have food allergies or celiac or other food related intolerances think food labeling is not important. To them it’s not important so it shouldn’t be important to others either. If they or someone they knew had these problems their opinion would certainly be different.
Now that said, two weeks ago I was reading a package food allergy label and it mentioned nuts, peanuts, soy, fish and shellfish. I laughed at this. It was ……bird seed. Kaytee high energy suet specifically sold for wild birds has a human food allergy warning statement. Now that might be going a little too far.