Contact: media@aldf.org
SAN FRANCISCO — The Animal Legal Defense Fund released a report finding that consumers care about what's in the food they buy, but are unable to accurately determine if a product contains ingredients of animal origin based on current U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) labeling requirements. The study found that a simple disclaimer about animal-derived ingredients on food labels would go a long way to improving consumer understanding and protecting health, and would enable the FDA to comply with this and previously stated policy objectives.
The report results are as follows:
90 percent of respondents value knowing what ingredients are in their food. 61 percent value knowing if a product contains animal-based ingredients. 47 percent would be upset if they found out a food they didn't know contained animal-based ingredients contained animal-based ingredients. 64 percent are confident that current ingredient lists contain all the information they need to determine if a product contains animal-based ingredients. When presented with an ingredient list with a disclaimer, correctly identifying products that contain animal-based ingredients jumped from 21 percent to 95 percent. When presented with a product with a disclaimer on the principal display panel (PDP), correctly identifying products that contain animal-based ingredients jumped from 14 percent to 86 percent. When presented with a list to choose from, 71 percent could identify the individual plant-based ingredients. When presented with a list to choose from, 28 percent could identify the individual animal-based ingredients.
Current food labeling requirements do not allow consumers to tell if a product contains ingredients of animal origin. For example, L-cysteine is made from duck feathers and is used as an ingredient to soften the crust of bagels, cookies, breads and pies. Other ingredients can be of either animal or plant origin, but the source of the ingredients is not currently required to be disclosed on the product label. For example, omega-3 fatty acids are often sourced from fish, monoglycerides are commonly sourced from animal fats, and vitamins A and D3 may be sourced from lanolin, the grease found in sheep's wool.
Whether a food contains animal-derived ingredients is an important fact. Consumers are very interested in disclosure of animal-derived ingredients due to religious, moral, food safety and allergy concerns. The report confirmed that the majority of respondents place importance on knowing if a product contains animal-derived ingredients. The difference between products that contain animals and those that do not is an important difference by type. For example, for patients with alpha-gal syndrome (an allergy that can cause anaphylactic shock even when exposed to trace amounts of mammalian ingredients), it is very important whether a product contains animal-derived ingredients that can cause an allergic reaction. Similarly, for those who cannot consume cow-derived foods for religious reasons, there is a very big difference between foods made with cow-derived gelatin and foods made with plant-derived gelatin. The physical ingredients used are different, and that is what matters to consumers.
“Confusion about whether a product contains ingredients of animal origin can harm consumers' lives and impede their ability to make informed decisions that align with their values,” said Amanda Howell, managing attorney at the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “It is the FDA's responsibility to ensure products are clearly labeled, rather than leaving consumers chasing information that may or may not be accurate.”
The report confirmed that disclaimers help consumers identify whether a food contains ingredients of animal origin. In the report, respondents were randomly given a list of ingredients with and without the “Contains ingredients of animal origin” disclaimer, along with other allergens. Correct identification of such ingredients increased from 5.6% to 96.7% for WinCo bagels, from 3.3% to 96.3% for General Mills Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, and from 30.8% to 93.5% for Planter's Dry Roasted Peanuts. These dramatic jumps in accuracy indicate that under current labeling laws, the majority of consumers cannot accurately detect animal-derived ingredients even after examining the PDP and ingredients list, and that adding a disclaimer is highly effective in closing this asymmetric information gap.
The “Contains Animal-Derived Ingredients” study was conducted by researchers at the University of Oklahoma and was completed in April 2024.
