Founded by Julie Mendel Reinhard, a devoted mother of a food allergic son, she has actively volunteered as a leader on food labeling issues. Her significant advocacy began with efforts to work alongside the office of Senator Ted Kennedy and Representative Nita Lowey for the passage of the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004. Additionally, she contributed to the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2015, which now mandates that food manufacturers implement safe food practices to develop preventive controls that significantly reduce the risk of unintended allergen cross-contamination. Currently, her efforts focus on ensuring that voluntary food safety labels, such as 'May Contain,' can effectively protect even the most vulnerable food allergic individuals. She is urging the FDA to conduct further studies on the concept of thresholds before issuing guidelines or regulations that could exclude 1.6 million food allergic Americans from necessary protection.
Julie earned her undergraduate degree at Brown University and her JD at Washington University in St. Louis, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Urban and Contemporary Law.
