Write Your Representative In Congress!

[angel-jd1]

Congress Goes Back to Work January 20th

Food Labeling legislation is NOW pending in Congress. In the Senate S. 741, and in the House H.R. 3684, the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act. The Senate HELP Committee unanimously passed S. 741 (labeling provisions were added) on November 21, 2003. A floor vote in the Senate may happen early in the year. Both measures have strong bipartisan support.

NOW Members of the House of Representatives, all 435, need to hear from YOU, their constituent.

Urge your Representative to cosponsor H.R.3684. Cosponsors mean support, and support leads to ACTION.

Go to Open Original Shared Link -- plug in your zip code, to send a letter to your legislator.

Targeted alerts for key Congressional Districts, will be posted to listserv over the next weeks, and months. If you live in the targeted area, please give your lawmaker an extra push : )

WE CAN Get A Bill Passed This Year ! Let's Work Together and Get It Done !

We Want HR 3684 in 2004 !!

American Celiac Task Force

[Naradowski]

This was so easy to do, Thank-you for the format. Everyone should follow your directions. It would definitely benefit all of us with celiac disease Judy Naradowski

[YankeeDB]

Count me in! Thanks for the easy format. It took just minutes to email each of my representatives on this topic vital to all of us.

[lesleyag]

Hi ,

I sent off my e-mails - got one reply. Thanks for doing the work and writing the e-mails for me!! My question is what more can I do? I find it interesting that the restaurant industry seems to be bending over backwards for the Atkins diet. I have sent several e-mails to chain restaurants that I used to frequent before I was diagnosed last year, but think they fell on deaf ears.

Any ideas?

Lesley

[Guest jhmom]

I wanted to share this with each of you, I received it through another online support group..... this is good news.....

SENATE UNANIMOUSLY PASSES FOOD LABELING BILL

 

The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed S. 741, which includes the Food Allergen Labeling and Protection Act.

The key provision labeling provisions:

  1) Require that food ingredient statements identify in plain English that an ingredient is itself, or derived from, one of the top 8 food allergens -- peanuts, tree nuts, fish, Crustacean shellfish, eggs, milk, soy, and wheat;

2) Require food ingredient statements to identify food allergens used in spices, natural or artificial flavorings, additives, and colorings;

3) Require all foods to be re-labeled by January 1, 2006;

4) Require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to issue a rule defining the term 'gluten-free' and permitting use of the term on food labeling;  and

5) Require a final rule regarding the voluntary use of 'gluten-free' on food labels be issued not later than 4 years after this bill becomes law.

This historic, bipartisan vote, sends a LOUD and clear message to the House of Representatives -- it's time to fix food labels. 

Thank you for all your work to bring the celiac community to this point.

Scream and shout today, tomorrow we tackle the House of Representatives.

[SadiesMomma]

Wow... that'll make things a lot easier when shopping! Bummer though that it is still so far away!

[lesleyag]

That's great - thanks for the update.

Lesley

[MySuicidalTurtle]

So, it really is happening?

The lables will say wheat?!?!?

[celiacfreeman]

there is an excellent way to just put in your zip code to get the latest bill passed.

it is on the site www.celiaccenter.org click american celiac task force and it sends

a premade letter to your respresentative about the new labeling law we want passes. Also in yesterdays Richmond (Virginia) times dispatch there was an

excellent article about celiacs.

[moonval]

I have a question that hopefully someone will have an answer to.

Do these labeling laws include fresh meat, poultry and fish? I've been having trouble with "minimally processed" chicken and now hear that meat processing companies may be spraying meat with a solution to keep it from spoiling so fast. And from what I can see, these meat/chicken/fish processing companies must not be required to state what they've added.

Is this true? Does anyone know more????

Thanks for any info you can give.

Valerie

[Guest Lindam]

I did contact someone at CSA and they didd state that some companies did inject some of the meat with flavorings that contain some sort of gluten. I definitely think they need to release that information to us and it should also be a part of this food labeling law.

Linda

[lovegrov]

CSA is wrong, or at least partly wrong. The USDA has control over what's injected into meat. By law, if a solution contains something that adds nutritional value (this incudes wheat and barley) to the meat, then it must be plainly listed. It cannot be hidden in "flavoring" or "broth." Mind you, this applies to raw fresh or frozen meat. What this means is that if you see "contains a flavoring solution" or "broth" on your package of raw turkey, chicken, pork or whatever and it doesn't say wheat or barley, you know it's gluten-free.

This information comes directly from a USDA nutritionist I talked to at their 800 number. Others have called and gotten the same information.

richard

[moonval]

Linda and Richard - Thanks for your reply -

Valerie