Occurrence and risk assessment of sesame as an allergen in selected Middle Eastern foods available in Montreal, Canada

Spent fowl as a source of unintentional egg proteins exposure in Canadian food products

“…This is one of the few cases where the voluntary basis of PAL could be upgraded to mandatory enforcement, although not feasible in the current state of the law in Canada. To our knowledge, only a few other food products may also require this approach: dark chocolate and milk ( Bedford et al, 2017 ; Manny et al, 2021b ) and “sfouf” and sesame ( Touma et al 2021a , b ). Like raw hens and hen pieces, the occurrence of cross-contact egg in processed finished products (wieners, burgers, etc.)…”

Allergen management under a voluntary PAL regulatory framework – A survey of Canadian food processors

“…Nevertheless, the use of PAL under this type of framework is confusing for allergic consumers, as it does not provide information in terms of risk of presence of unintentional allergens (occurrence and/or quantity) ( Holleman et al., 2020 ). For example, as pointed out by prospective articles ( Manny et al., 2021a , b ; Touma et al., 2021 ), in some products with PAL, there is no detectable level of the unintentional allergen (e.g., milk in candies) while others are frequently contaminated at levels that may pose a risk to allergic consumers (e.g., milk in dark chocolate). As a result, some allergic consumers may unnecessarily limit their food choices (i.e., strictly avoiding products with PAL for their allergens) while others take risks that may have serious health consequences (i.e., consuming products with PAL for their allergens).…”