People With Allergies Must Know About Food Labels

People with food allergies often complain that food labels are ambiguous.

Although food companies recently announced that they would be adopting stricter labeling guidelines, people with food allergies are still confused.

Lisa Cipriano Collins, a mother, said she fears peanut butter. Her son was diagnosed with a deadly peanut and tree nut allergy when he was 1 year old.

"We fear it. We do," Collins said.

To protect her son, she said she has tried to learn everything she can about food allergies.

Find out what you know about food labels.

True or False: Reading food labels is important every time you go to the store.

"Absolutely true, and an absolute requirement for life," allergy and immunology specialist Dr. John Costa said.

Collins said her son, Max, ate Chips Ahoy cookies for years before she noticed a potentially lethal ingredient on the label -- pecan meal.

Max said he was disappointed when his mother took the cookies away.

"I flipped out because they were my No. 1 cookie, and I couldn't have them anymore," Max said.

True or false: If you eat a peanut butter cookie, and then kiss someone who has peanut allergies, he or she could suffer a fatal reaction.

"That's possibly true. When you eat the food, you keep small bits of that food on your lips and in your mouth," Costa said.

True or false: If you have food allergies, you don't need to carry an epinephrine pen everywhere you go.

The answer is false.

Costa said epinephrine is vital to survival.