Despite labelling regulations as many as 25 per cent of manufacturers failed to list common ingredients that can cause potentially fatal allergic reactions, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) discovered after investigating dozens of companies.
The mislabelling poses a threat to the roughly seven million Americans who suffer from food allergies and who rely on a product's packaging to keep them safe, according to the F.D.A.
The agency examined 85 companies of all sizes that were likely to use common allergy triggers in abundance: biscuit makers, confectionery companies and ice cream manufacturers.
Its report, which was completed earlier this year, found that a quarter of the companies made products with raw ingredients like nuts, but omitted them from the labels describing the food.
The report further stated that only slightly more than half of the manufacturers checked their products to ensure that all of the ingredients were accurately reflected on the labels, making it difficult for consumers to know which foods might cause allergic reactions.
Current F.D.A. rules require companies to list everything that goes into their products, but allow trace amounts of "natural" ingredients to be omitted from labels.
To close those loopholes, a coalition of attorneys general in nine states, from New York to Wyoming, petitioned the F.D.A. last May to issue new regulations.
If enacted, the new rules would require manufacturers to warn consumers that their products might contain allergens, even if they are not deliberately added as ingredients.
Source: New York Times