According to the FDA, the most common food allergens are milk, peanuts, eggs, fish, shellfish, soy, tree nuts, wheat and sesame.
Claims listed within SmartLabel are either governed by entities such as the USDA, FDA, EPA, etc., or defined by participating brands.
FDA has not formally defined the term "free" as it relates to allergens. The agency's general position is that when the term "free" has not been defined by regulation, it conveys the product contains zero or "no detectable levels" of the relevant substance.
FDA is of the view that to substantiate a free claim, a company would need to use a method that has been specifically developed to detect and quantify low levels of the relevant substance, and that has been validated at multiple labs.
