Lobbying Congress

Allergy Awareness and Sesame Issue

On May 3, 2023, I had the pleasure of lobbying my Congresspeople at the Allergy and Asthma Network’s Allergy and Asthma Day on Capitol Hill. I was able to speak with staffers for Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren as well as Representative Stephen Lynch. I discussed a few bills with them - the Protecting Children with Food Allergies Act (S.121) and the One School One Nurse Act (H.R. 305).

In addition, I talked about the issue of manufacturers adding sesame to their products to circumvent the FASTER Act. Everyone was receptive - in fact, Representative Lynch had already co-authored a letter to the FDA asking the FDA to re-clarify that sesame may not be added to ingredient lists when it is not an ingredient, to convene allergy experts and prevention control experts to find a solution to the mislabeling, and to implement a precautionary allergen labeling policy that is mandatory, consistent and evidence-based. This is one of the issues I will be working on with CFP (see earlier post). I encouraged the Senators to do something similar on their side.

Luckily, FARE is working on this too. The day before I arrived, a letter was sent to the American Bakers Association by Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and U.S. Representatives Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Patrick McHenry, R-N.C. asking them to stop adding sesame unnecessarily to products.

So we are going after the issue in various ways - through the FDA and regulations and by lobbying Congress. I urge you to contact your representatives and ask them to sign on to either of these letters.