FDA has approved sesame to be included under allergen category for any food items and a precautionary statement will also be added on food labels.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for regulating the food industry, consumers, and associated stakeholders on most healthiest ways to analyze and control allergen hazards in food. The FDA conducts frequent inspections and sampling to measure if major food allergens are properly labeled on food items or not.  and to determine whether food facilities implement controls to prevent allergen cross-contact (the inadvertent introduction of a major food allergen into a product) and labeling controls to prevent undeclared allergens during manufacturing and packaging. If FDA observe any issues, a notification is sent to firms to recall products and alert consumers immediately. Now, in this article we will describe why FDA recently approved sesame as food allergen.

What is food allergy?

Allergies or hypersensitivities caused by food affect millions of people across the globe. This is caused by abnormal reaction of body towards certain chemicals (mostly protein) present in the food materials. The symptoms of food allergic reactions vary in severity, including mild symptoms like hives and lip swelling to even severe anaphylaxis symptoms. These symptoms can give fatal respiratory problems or even shock. Although having promising prevention therapeutic strategies, food allergies cannot be cured completely. It is mostly dependent on early recognition and further learning how to manage it. It's always better to avoid that specific food item to prevent health consequences.

FDA approved food allergens:

Previously FDA has highlighted presence of allergens like milk, eggs, fish lik bass, flounder, cod, Crustacean shellfish, like crab, lobster, shrimp, tree nuts, like almonds, walnuts, pecans, peanuts, wheat, and soybeans. These eight major food allergens were defined by the federal law passed in 2004. Now in this list sesame has been included.

Why did Sesame become a Food Allergen?

Sesame became the ninth major food allergen under Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education, and Research (FASTER) Act, a federal law passed in 2021.

While "many kinds of foods can cause allergies," the federal laws "focus on the most common ones and require that food labels identify the food source of a major food allergen using its common or usual name on the label."

Watch this video describing sesame allergy.

Words from the food scientist:

"Over the past several years, there’s been a growing awareness that sesame allergy has become more common, not just the United States, but also in Europe and other parts of the world," said Ruchi S. Gupta, MD, MPH, a professor of pediatrics and director of the Institute for Public Health and Medicine at the Center for Food Allergy and Asthma at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago.

Meanwhile, she was the lead author of a research on sesame allergy prevalence, which was submitted to FDA.

"About 80 percent of people with a sesame allergy also have another food allergy, and close to one-third have had a severe allergic reaction and used the emergency medication epinephrine," added Gupta.

She added further: "When a person with a sesame allergy has a sesame exposure, proteins in the sesame bind to specific IgE antibodies made by the person’s immune system. This triggers an immune response that can cause mild to severe symptoms."

Consumers will see an advisory statement on food items like “may contain sesame or “produced in a facility that also uses sesame.” It's definitely an important change, which will help you immediately identify foods containing sesame if you are allergic to sesame.