Friday, October 28, 2011

My Petition on WhiteHouse.gov's "We the People" Site

On the WhiteHouse.gov site, the Obama Administration has launched a site, "We the People", where you can submit a petition.  If the petition reaches the signature threshold within 30 days, it will receive a response from White House staff and be directed to the appropriate department(s) for review.  I submitted the following petition:

Update the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) of 2004 to include sesame and mustard seeds.

Here is the petition text:

We would like to request that the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 (Title II of Public Law 108-282), also known as FALCPA, be extended to include labeling of items containing sesame seeds and mustard seeds.

Sesame seed, for example, is sometimes hidden in ingredients, under the name "tahini", "spices", or "natural flavoring". Individuals with food allergies need to know exactly what is contained within a food product, for the sake of their health and safety. Approximately 3 million Americans are affected by sesame allergies and accidental exposures can be fatal, for some.

Food allergies are on the rise, now affecting 1 in 13 children, in the U.S., according to the latest study sponsored by the Food Allergy Initiative.
We only have 1 week remaining and over 23,000 signatures are still needed.  Even if we do not reach our goal, I'm hoping that this will bring some awareness to the food allergy cause.  I believe the labeling laws should be amended to include other food items, too, such as corn, but I thought we should start small and work our way up.  I believe the Corn Lobby (or whatever you want to call it) would fight tooth and nail against labeling corn, since it's in "everything", and they've recently fought to change "high fructose corn syrup" to "corn sugar" on labels.  That's a step in the wrong direction.  Anyway, it would be great if you'd sign the petition and share it, as well.  Thank you!

 

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