Food Manufacturer Responses Can Build or Destroy Food Allergic Consumer Confidence

I love when food manufacturers ask for a doctor's note to provide specific ingredient information. Have you ever received that response from a food manufacturer? When I call or email to inquire about ingredients or risk of cross-contamination, and I receive a response that is less than satisfactory, it decimates my confidence in a particular product and often in all products by that manufacturer. When a company goes above and beyond to label clearly and answer my questions as thoroughly as possible, I become a loyal customer and will tell all my friends...and readers...and followers, and they'll tell their friends, readers, and followers, and so on... (Kinda like that 'ol Faberge Shampoo commercial, remember? The sound on this video's a bit distorted but you get the idea.)

Below is an email fellow Twitter user, @RockerMom1998, received in response to her allergen inquiry about Popsicle brand popsicles:

"Thank you for writing us regarding Unilever .

We do appreciate your interest in our company and its products.

When common allergens are used in our products, we list these under our ingredients. The common allergens we list, if present, are: Milk, Eggs, Fish, Shellfish, Wheat, Soy, Peanuts or other Nuts. We make every effort to stay informed about any additional ingredients that could be considered common allergens. Also whenever possible, we try to avoid using materials or ingredients that could be considered to be commonly allergenic, so that potential allergens are not included into categories such as "Natural Flavors".

Many of our unique flavors are created for us by flavor suppliers, and we purchase the flavors as a single component. Since the formula of the flavor is proprietary to the flavor supplier, we do not have a list of the flavoring ingredients.

In the case of allergies: it is extremely unlikely that an artificial or natural flavoring would contain the complex proteins needed to cause an allergic reaction. On the other hand, some people may find that there are particular foods which are not tolerated and need to be avoided.

Food allergies are caused when a sensitive person has an adverse reaction to complex proteins. Flavorings rarely contain any proteins. If they do, then the proteins are usually only simple proteins that should not cause an allergic reaction. If a flavoring contains complex proteins, then the source of the protein will be included in the ingredient list on the product label.

If you do have an allergy, we would ask that your doctor provide the name of the specific flavors or components in writing, we will then respond to your physician. As you may know, flavors often have complex formulations, containing many ingredients. The research may take several weeks to complete so we thank you for your patience.

Please send to:

Unilever Consumer Services
800 Sylvan Ave.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632"

Sincerely,

Your friends at Unilever