What food allergens must be listed on food labels?

There are several ingredients that make up 90% of food allergies, including milk, eggs, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, wheat and soy. Allergy specialist Tania Elliott, MD, discusses what to look out for on food labels, and cross-contamination.

Transcript

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Dairy-free does not necessarily mean "free of milk protein." So it's really important that you read the ingredients

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very carefully. [MUSIC PLAYING]

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So these are the big eight that make up 90% of the food allergies and sensitivities that we see.

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Milk, egg, peanut, tree nut-- so those are things like pecans and hazelnuts and walnuts and almonds--

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fish, crustacean shellfish-- so that's just shrimp, lobster, and crab--

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wheat, and soy. And I'm just gonna pause for a second and tell you a little bit about milk allergy

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and some misleading labels. So "dairy-free" is not something that the FDA regulates. So dairy-free does not necessarily

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mean "free of milk protein." So it's really important that you read the ingredients very carefully because it'll say things like casein and whey.

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And then in parentheses, it'll say, "a derivative of milk or milk protein." So it's really important to read those labels.

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And while we're on food labels, let's talk a little bit about cross-contamination and what that means. What does it mean when it says, "produced in a factory

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where peanuts are also an ingredient in another product," or, "manufactured in a plant where peanuts are present,"

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and things like that? So what does that actually mean? It means that there's a possibility that there's a trace amount of the allergenic protein present

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in that particular product. And a recent study was done. They tested 200 products. And they found that about 10% of the time, trace amounts

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of that ingredient was actually found within that product that had the label, "may contain." So if you have a severe allergy or severe sensitivity,

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my recommendation is to avoid those products that have the "may contain" label. [AUDIO LOGO]