On almost all food labels that I've seen for the last decade or so I've seen disclaimers like "this product is made in a factory that processes $ALLERGEN"
(France)
"trace of nuts"
"may contain accidental presence of nuts"
"made in a workshop that processes nuts"
Certain products specifically for allergy sufferers have strange messages such as "non-quantifiable presence of an allergen". A PCR test can detect traces of a product's DNA, but it is impossible to quantify its volume because it is so small, or to trace the source of contamination.
They can't say there aren't any, there's no defined threshold or it's not possible to clearly quantify the quantity.
Same in the UK. For example, it's not uncommon to have food items that are certified as vegan, with a warning that they may contain traces of milk due to cross contamination - for most vegans, this is acceptable.
The "may contain" line is not the part that the FDA takes issues with. From the source complaint:
> The Brownberry brand Whole Grains 12 Grains and Seeds RTE bread loaf product is misbranded for a similar reason; the product label includes walnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts in the ingredient and “Contains” statements; however, these nuts are not ingredients in the formulation of the product.
Emphasis on "Contains", which is a separate line on the packaging from the "may contain" line.
It isn't part of this complaint, however the FDA regulation explicitly says that labeling food with "may contains" is not good enough for major allergen cross contamination, which is why companies added them to the "contains" section, and why some companies are actually mixing allergens into he ingredients so they can legally add them to the contains section. (In this case, the bakery appears to have just added the allergens to the contains section without actually adding them).
The FDA should either 1) Allow the use of "may contains" for major allergen cross contamination. Or) Create a new category, such as "Possible cross contamination" that would be considered good enough. This would remove the incentive to deliberately add allergens while allowing proper labeling.
However, there are some lobbyist groups that want to force companies to use separate factories for any foods that contain major allergens, making those foods cost substantially more than they do now to produce. So the of us without allergens can either eat tasteless sterile food (likely leading to more folks with food allergies do a lack of exposure), or to pay out the wazoo for the privilege of eating normal food.
Certain products specifically for allergy sufferers have strange messages such as "non-quantifiable presence of an allergen". A PCR test can detect traces of a product's DNA, but it is impossible to quantify its volume because it is so small, or to trace the source of contamination.
They can't say there aren't any, there's no defined threshold or it's not possible to clearly quantify the quantity.