It’s “may contain” because the factory producing it also produces other products that do contain milk, nuts and whatever. The production line will be cleaned according to the (inter)national standards when switching production, but that doesn’t mean there is 0% chance of cross contamination. It’s just extremely low chance.
Comment on Vegan products not always safe for people with dairy allergy, watchdog says
doublejay1999@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Also frequently full of nuts.
UndercoverUlrikHD@programming.dev 3 months ago
AnonStoleMyPants@sopuli.xyz 3 months ago
Wait why not? Or do you mean that the terminology is off or? And how is it get out of jail free card? If the label is there then it has been made in a factory where the manufacturer cannot guarantee cross-contamination free product. Seems perfectly fine to me, most people have no issue with that. If you are very allergic to dairy for instance then obviously you should not use these products. Same as with tons of allergies.
doublejay1999@lemmy.world 3 months ago
In fact, many allergy charities view it as badly flawed, so I don’t know who the ‘most people’ are that you talking about ?
narf.org.uk/…/we-have-a-big-problem-with-may-cont…
…org.uk/…/precautionary-allergen-labelling-the-ma…
AnonStoleMyPants@sopuli.xyz 3 months ago
So none of the links say that the statement is “badly flawed”. Two of them arw about consultation on this labeling or in allergens in general, and two mention that the labeling is a problem because it is not required / there is no clear policy behind it.
Sure, I agree that there should be a policy about when the label is required.
doublejay1999@lemmy.world 3 months ago
It wasn’t a quote.
In any event, people can read and decide for themselves
DoYouNot@lemmy.world 3 months ago
As someone who prays to see a ‘may contain’ statement alongside a ‘contains’ statement on the potentially risky food I’d like to eat: I vehemently disagree. “May contain” seems to always mean “contains some”. Without it, I’d have no way to know if there’s a real risk of cross contamination.
metaStatic@kbin.social 3 months ago
may contain traces of cockroach
NocturnalEngineer@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Cross-contamination is always a risk in shared factories, hence why “May contain” needs to exist - they’re listing known allergens the factory is handling. The vegan / vegetarian labelling supports a dietary choice rather than allergy advise.
As the article highlights, “free-from” labelling has more stringent controls and requirements to eliminate cross-contamination. The “free-from” products labels people should be seeking if they require it to be allergen-free.