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WASHINGTON, D.C. – In the United States, the main allergens must appear on labels as long as they are part of the ingredients of a product. Milk, eggs, fish, seafood, nuts, peanuts, wheat and soy are all on the list.
According to a new study, 1.5 million children and adults in the United States could be allergic to sesame. This is a larger number than previously estimated, making it the ninth most common allergy. But sesame is not necessarily written on food labels.
In October, the US Food and Drug Administration asked researchers, health care providers, and consumers for more information on the prevalence and severity of sesame allergies in order to guide the regulatory process. labeling matter. The FDA told CNN that it was still reviewing public comments and that it had not published new information on sesame regulations.
"We are clinically seeing sesame allergies and how difficult it is for allergic families to avoid sesame, so this seemed like an ideal opportunity to deepen understanding of allergy." sesame in the United States, "said Dr. Ruchi Gupta, co-author of the new study and professor of pediatrics and medicine at Northwestern University.
For the study, published Friday in the JAMA Network Open, researchers sent questionnaires on food allergies to more than 51,000 households in all 50 states and interviewed 78,800 people.
Researchers estimate that about 0.4% of the US population reported having a sesame allergy and 0.23% had what is called a "convincing" or true food allergy, with skin symptoms , pulmonary, cardiac or gastrointestinal. These symptoms included urticaria, wheezing, heart palpitations, dizziness and abdominal pain. Others may have been diagnosed with allergy, but have not shown any symptoms.
In the United States, 0.21% of children and 0.24% of adults would be allergic to sesame, which is an increase over the number reported in a smaller, more recent study that showed a prevalence of 0, 1%.
Sesame on food labels
Sesame is an ingredient found in a variety of spices, sauces and flavors. And even if the food does not contain sesame, it can still be cooked in sesame oil.
"It's an allergen difficult to control in cooking," said Christopher Warren, senior author and epidemiologist at Northwestern University's Food Allergy and Asthma Research Center. For example, "in Japanese spices and seasonings, it is almost always present".
On Tuesday, the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, enacted a law that requires food packaged in the state to wear labeled sesame if it's an ingredient . The policy is aligned with those of Australia, Europe, New Zealand and Canada, all of which have requirements for sesame labeling.
In Canada, sesame labeling has been mandatory since 2012.
"It's important to know that we can be accidentally exposed and that labeling is one of the ways to inform consumers of the possible presence of an allergen," said Dr. Moshe Ben-Shoshan, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Montreal Children's Hospital in Canada.
The question of whether food labeling in Canada has reduced the number of accidental exposures has not been proven by studies.
"If something makes sense, we do not need to prove it sometimes," said Ben-Shoshan. "I think this should also be done in the US It's a simple step to install that could protect lives."
The number of people in the United States suffering from sesame allergy from untagged food products has not been calculated in the new study, according to Warren. Another limitation of the study lies in the fact that people with allergies and symptoms were self-reported, without medical tests to confirm their results.
Even in this case, the study provides evidence of the "growing burden of sesame allergy" in the United States, according to Jennifer Protudjer and Dr. Elissa Abrams of the University of Manitoba in Canada, who wrote an editorial in parallel in the study.
The study "supports a growing need for diligence and awareness of the role of sesame allergy in the United States," they wrote. "This also suggests that sesame allergy may be a persistent allergy affecting children and adults, and may also result in serious reactions."
Arman Azad and Naomi Thomas contributed to this report.
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