“MAY contain nonsense” might be a useful warning to append to food labels. Only 10 per cent of products in the US labelled “may contain nuts” actually did, according to a recent study. Conversely, an examination of European chocolate found that half the products with no allergy warning contained hazelnut.
The problem is only a part of a wider confusion over food allergies (see “The food allergy mystery”), but it is probably the most serious. One danger is that warnings lose all credibility, so susceptible consumers will start to ignore them even when they flag up a real risk.…
