Japan’s consumer agency is considering adding cashew nuts to the list of ingredients requiring mandatory labeling for allergy risks on food packaging following a rising number of cases of allergic reactions linked to their consumption.
Cashews are currently categorized in the lower-risk category of the government’s allergy labeling system. If an ingredient is listed in the higher-risk category, food manufacturers are obliged to put it on their allergy labels; the lower-risk category doesn’t make labeling mandatory, though it recommends they do so.
Last year, cashews were responsible for 279 of 6,033 allergy cases, or 4.6%, making them the seventh-most common allergenic food. This is a sharp increase from 0.6% in a survey conducted in 2012, when cashew nuts were ranked 14th among allergenic ingredients.
