Right this is exactly what happened with the new sesame laws. The government declared sesame as an allergen and enacted heavy fines if it was undisclosed. This lead to manufacturers adding sesame because they couldn't guarantee they were sesame free.
"May contain" labeling seems like the better solution to this problem. This should be allowed for allergens that are present in the manufacturing or packing facility but not intended to be ingredients in the product.
Then there would never be a reason not to list "may contain sesame". Just like every product causes cancer in california.
The door to one of the hospitals in SF has a prop 16 warning. Even hospitals give you cancer!
That's part of the problem. "May contain" doesn't provide legal protection and then if you make it a standard there needs to be testing for compliance which ends up as the same original problem and you just add compliance tits to your food product.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34116211
"May contain" should provide legal protection. It may be compliance tits in some cases, but that's better than forcing the addition of a compliance ingredient.
> "May contain" doesn't provide legal protection
Yes, this causes problems.
> and then if you make it a standard there needs to be testing for compliance
Why would there need to be any additional testing? If anything I'd expect "may" foods to need less testing than an accident-prone "no" food.
do you have an example of this? it feels like a suboptimal response even given the stupid, heavy-handed legislation you cite.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34116211
https://www.fox9.com/news/new-us-food-label-law-unintended-e...
> Some companies include statements on labels that say a food "may contain" a certain product or that the food is "produced in a facility" that also uses certain allergens. However, such statements are voluntary, not required, according to the FDA, and they do not absolve the company of requirements to prevent cross-contamination.
> Instead, some companies have taken a different approach. Officials at Olive Garden said that starting this week, the chain is adding "a minimal amount of sesame flour" to the company’s famous breadsticks "due to the potential for cross-contamination at the bakery."
related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_California_Proposition_65...
> Many companies now routinely attach Prop 65 warning labels to any product of theirs that they think might possibly contain one of the 900 listed chemicals without testing to see whether the chemical is really present in their product and without reformulating their product, because it is cheaper to do so than to run the risk of being sued by Prop 65 enforcers.