The study, conducted at 85 bakeries, ice cream factories, and candy plants in Minnesota and Wisconsin, examined food products made at the facilities for two common food allergens—eggs and peanuts. Out of the 45 samples analyzed for the presence of eggs, 10 percent tested positive for the allergen. Sixty percent of the positive samples were ice cream products. The study attributed this to the fact that ice cream processors use a manufacturing process called "push through," in which batch change over in flavors occurs by pushing through the ingredients of one flavor by beginning to process the next flavor. In the push through process, the manufacturer begins to use the product from the second flavor when a specified volume of the product has been processed or the color of the material changes. The other 40 percent of the samples containing eggs were bakery products.
Seventy-three products were tested for the presence of peanuts, and 25 percent, or 18 products, tested positive. Most of the products were bakery products, including eight cookies, two cookie dough samples, and one doughnut. In addition, six candy samples and one ice cream product tested positive. While more bakery samples tested positive, 100 percent of the candy samples tested contained the undeclared allergen. The study cited certain manufacturing practices that may have contributed to such contamination in the candy products. For instance, at one candy, both chocolates containing peanuts and those without were processed on the same machine, which was only cleaned once annually. At another factory, all candy was cut on the same marble slab, which contained nicks and scratches where peanut residue could contaminate non-peanut containing candies.
The study also revealed that other manufacturing processes seemed to increase the risk of contamination from undeclared allergens. For instance, some manufacturers reported that reused equipment without cleaning it. Some factories reported that they reused baking parchment six to 10 times before discarding it. Other firms reported that they do not sequence or schedule production runs to avoid contamination from common allergens. Nor do many factories use a dedicated line of equipment for allergen containing products.
Additionally, in firms that processed a portion of a finished food product, set it aside to use the machinery for another purpose, and then finished processing (a production technique known as "rework"), 40 percent in Minnesota and 55 percent in Wisconsin had products that tested positive for undeclared allergens. Moreover, only three out of the 85 firms in the study had employees specifically dedicated to allergen control; only three firms used separate equipment to prevent allergen contamination; and only four percent used analytical testing to reveal adduce whether contamination had occurred during processing. Label verification also seemed to contribute to contamination. Thirty-eight percent of firms in Minnesota and 64 percent in Wisconsin that failed to use such procedures had contaminated products.
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