My name is Erin Conroy and I am writing to you today as a concerned mother and member of society. I consider myself a part of the silent majority as I rarely bring my personal concerns to our government, except by way of my voting preferences. However, on this particular issue I can no longer keep silent. The topic of my concern is food allergies, and the risk that sufferers are exposed to daily.

My daughter has suffered with allergies since birth, so I have been passionate about the subject for the better part of two years. That passion grew into a necessity of action on May 8th of this year when a young woman named Rachel Hunger died after experiencing anaphylaxis. Rachel was a beautiful woman who showed immense promise. She taught at my daughter’s daycare, and I can honestly say that all of the children there loved her. Tragically, her life was cut way too short over something that could easily have been avoided.

Rachel knew of her peanut allergy, and therefore knew to be careful about what she ate. Unfortunately, that conscientiousness didn’t help her. It didn’t help her because she was exposed to the allergen without knowing that it was in her food. You see, the restaurant she was establishing, although listed some allergens on their menu, didn’t list one of the ingredients – a peanut paste – in the item that she consumed. Therefore, Rachel thought she was safe to eat it. Sadly, she was wrong.

This heartbreaking event could have been prevented though, and this life lost saved, if only restaurants were mandated to disclose allergens on every item on their menu. It is unreasonable to request that every single allergen be listed, I know. However, is it too much to ask that the top eight be reported? We are already demanding companies to list these eight allergens on food that is sold in stores; is it too unrealistic to request that those same eight allergens be disclosed on every menu throughout this great nation?

Laws similar to this idea were already implemented in parts of the European Union. Certain countries, such as Spain, use identifiers from a legend on their menu to indicate allergens in each dish. As you can imagine, it would take little effort to add identifiers to menus here in the United States.

The Food Allergy Research & Education website states that researchers estimate that 32 million Americans suffer from food allergies, and that every year emergency medical care is required for 200,000 people. Also shockingly, the “Centers for Disease Control & Prevention reports that the prevalence of [a] food allergy in children increased by 50 percent between 1997 and 2011 (FARE website, May 13, 2019).” I believe you would agree that these statistics confirm that this is a large percentage of our population.

Considering the continued increase of sufferers, wouldn’t it make sense to make the change now? Please consider signing this petition in hopes that a light will be shown on the severity of the subject. One death is too many - especially when there is such a simple solution.