the uncommon allergy haver to anticapitalist pipeline
in January 2023, companies became required to label sesame on all products it was present in, and undergo rigorous cleaning procedures to prevent sesame contamination, after it was declared the 9th “major” food allergen in the United States.
so, instead of considering this a mandate to give a single shit about people with sesame allergies, almost all American companies decided to just add sesame flour to all their relevant products. because apparently that was cheaper.
it’s almost impossible for me to find hot dog and hamburger buns without sesame now. and I am one of the lucky ones. I’m someone who just so happened to notice the label updates, not get caught unawares and have a severe allergic reaction. I’m someone lucky enough to be surrounded by multiple choices of supermarkets, and someone with the incredible privilege to have parents who’ll help me search the shelves, and cover those costs that my allergies rack up. not everyone with allergies/other intolerances has all or any of those privileges to begin with.
most food allergies will never be prevalent enough that under capitalism, it will be profitable to give them the level of accommodation that they deserve. I speak from experience with a wide portfolio of hypersensitivity quirks when I say that the rarer the food allergy, the worse it gets.
and here’s the thing: I can live without hamburger buns, with only superficial decreases in my quality of life. but sesame isn’t my only rare allergy, and ever since this legislation hit, I’ve been lying awake at night, afraid of what I might lose access to next.
I’ve been lying awake at night wondering what I’ll have to do to live, to obtain enough safe food to survive, if any of my other allergies get this same treatment. and I reiterate. I am one of the privlidged ones.
what these companies have done is completely legal. what these companies did has also cut off up to over a million people from what were previously safe, affordable staples of their diets. a system that has any incentive not to accommodate the dietary needs of any population is not a system that can be allowed to exist. this is the uncommon allergy haver to angry, fuming anticapitalist pipeline.
[Image description: two screenshots of tumblr tags, reading:
“also pea protein. mcdicks just added pea protein without any proper warning so if you got a legume allergy, don’t eat their buns.”
“did you know pea protein and pea flour is a thing. i didn’t. but i sure found out quick after i ate frozen nuggets and when i got gravy from a restaurant. now i have to check fucking everything because i’ve also found pea protein in ice cream of all things.” End description.]
thank you @butchwelddone and @insidejupiter respectively for these psas. signal boosting here for all my fellow legume-allergic folks, stay safe (and stay away from McDonalds buns)
My dad has a cow milk allergy, my sibling has a coconut allergy, one of our close friends is allergic to most spices, wheat, and soy. If we’re lucky, we can find a product that any two of them can eat. Almost anything that calls itself “allergy free” is loaded with coconut.
Also! Fifteen years or so ago, all the whipped toppings went from being dairy free to advertising how they were “made with real cream!” Not to mention various other foods that followed the trend, and really screwed everyone over for having cow’s milk and whatever original milk alternative they used to cut costs both in everything.
So, yeah. For-profit food my belothed.
USAmerican corn-allergy-haver here l love you all and I think we should burn it all down.
By the way the practical [miserable] advice is to cook most things from scratch for yourself and to eat out rarely and only at restaurants you’ve completely vetted.
The advice that fucking nobody ever tells you about and that is why I literally went back to school to get a degree in nutrition is
If you suffer from a food allergy that cuts you off from bread and cereal products in the US you probably need to supplement your diet with vitamins because the primary source of folate in the American diet is fortified cereals and a severe folate deficiency is basically a form of anemia.
You can supplement this with vitamins but :) if you have :) grain allergies :) make sure :) that your allergens :) aren’t used :) as fillers in :) the vitamins :) :) :) :)
Either you can take folate/folic acid on its own or you can take half a daily prenatal vitamin to meet the RDA for folate.
I have wheat, corn, and sesame allergies. I eat out about once a month and have to bring my own food to weddings, conferences, and anything else that will take me away from my own kitchen. I don’t go to theme parks because there’s nothing I can eat there. Backpacking and camping are difficult because pre-made camping foods contain my allergens and it’s hard to carry foods that I know I can eat. If I go out to eat with friends no I don’t I go out to have a cup of coffee - oh, is artificial creamer all you’ve got? nah it’s got cornstarch in it, that’s fine, I’ll just drink it black that’s okay oh wait all you’ve got is decaf that’s fine I’ll just have water OH you are using eco-friendly corn plastic cups well that’s okay I am at least here being with people I’ll eat when I get home. I am not on at least three medications my doctor recommended because corn is part of the product and I can’t afford to have the meds made at a compounding pharmacy. Corn is in all of these things because it is RIDICULOUSLY cheap which is at least partially as a result of subsidies and is also at least partially as a result of the scaling economics of monocrops for agribusiness.
It is ten dollars cheaper to get 21 ounces more mac and cheese *shipped from canada* than it is to buy one of the pre-made foods that I can actually eat.
You may say “oh, well that’s because that’s the weenie organic brand that uses artisinal cheddar, of course it’s more expensive than kraft” and I would have to say:
THE WEENIE ORGANIC BRAND ALSO DOESN’T PUT FUCKING CORN IN EVERYTHING.
Anyway. This has done extremely normal things to my ability to feed myself, maintain my health, and socialize as well as my desire to do arson.
shoutout to the trader joe’s cashier who asked me if i was lactose intolerant and then called someone to get me a different shredded cheese because the almond milk one i’d picked inexplicably also has cow milk in it. who the fuck is this product even for
i have an allergy to aloe vera and i’m like 10x more likely to get allergic reactions from skincare products labelled “hypoallergenic” than i am to other things. because apparently to companies “hypoallergenic” = “~natural~” and “natural” = “let’s just throw some aloe in there for no god damned reason”
and it’s luckily not a life threatening allergy but i once got an itchy mouth because i didn’t think to check the label of my god damned mouthwash for aloe. because who the fuck would think to put aloe in mouthwash
