This impacted my family directly. A family member has a severe sesame allergy. Honestly we weren't aware people could be allergic to sesame before we found ourselves in the hospital after a severe reaction.
Shortly after the hospital incident and after much time spent scrutinizing every ingredient label the law changed. We were excited about this at first. It became much easier to identify things we couldn't have in the house.
The unfortunate side effects of the law were most visible in the bread aisle, where nearly every item now contains sesame. This included all of the store brands and most of the brand-name products. Initially, we were limited to only one brand of bread (shout out to Kings Hawaiian). We also found a few artisan / local boutique options we could trust, but that's a pretty expensive way to make a PB&J.
Our situation has improved a bit. Recently a second, slightly less expensive, name brand sandwich bread went sesame-free. We're still stuck with oddly expensive artisanal hotdog buns. Why are the fancy ones all top cut instead of side cut? It's just weird that way.
Anyway, I expect that eventually more brands will go sesame-free as recipes change and factories go through whatever update process where it makes sense to separate allergens.
We're still happy about the regulation change and how easy it is now to identify dangerous items. Seeing global brands add sesame to a product to avoid whatever cost necessary to change their process was...not endearing. Hopefully their share price went up a few cents I guess.
Spivak · 4h ago
> Why are the fancy ones all top cut instead of side cut? It's just weird that way.
How very dare you. They're the superior cut and it's appalling side cut even exists. To answer your question though it's because that cut originates from New England and is used for "higher end" foods like lobster rolls. So they're perceived as fancier.
But they're just objectively better. Side cut buns are uneven which makes sense for a sandwich where you a thicker top bun but is utterly ridiculous for a top facing slice. Can you imagine a taco where one half of the tortilla was like three times as thick? Like look at this https://imgur.com/tF9uBp7 — absurd. That little flappy thing just falls apart. Also the flat part of the roll is at the bottom so when you top cut your hot dog can stand upright on the plate and not fall over. Typically the sides of top cut rolls are also flat which makes grilling/toasting the roll much easier. You get a delicious crispy buttery on the outside fluffy on the inside roll.
CGMthrowaway · 2h ago
>that cut originates from New England and is used for "higher end" foods like lobster rolls.
Yeah. Because it would suck if your hand-picked lobster fell out of your bun onto the ground (It also allows you to pour melted butter over the top, something you can't do on a sidecut bun).
If you like hot dogs I would hope you feel the same way about your hot dog.
aidenn0 · 4h ago
My closest grocery store (an Albertsons in SoCal) completely lacks any top-cut hotdog buns. They have 9 different varieties of side-cut buns (Including 2 varieties of potato rolls; I counted). I'm from Rhode Island, so this situation is rather unacceptable to me.
focusedone · 3h ago
I did wonder if that one provocative statement would even be noticed :-)
You make a good argument. I see the functional point of a top cut. Helps prevent condiment excursions. Less likely to break in half. BUT, it's just so much bread. And the hotdog does want to pop out.
I'm unaware of any baseball park or hotdog stand where top-cut buns are sold. This is clearly an established best practice. Hotdog consumers have made an aesthetic choice here.
aidenn0 · 2h ago
> I'm unaware of any baseball park or hotdog stand where top-cut buns are sold.
Baseball Park: Fenway[1]
Hotdog Stand: Not uncommon in Rhode Island (and probably other parts of New England). I've seen Saugys[2] sold from food trucks in side-cut buns but it's the exception rather than the rule.
As a non-American, I was unaware that side-cut hotdog buns even existed.
Then again, in Australia, the standard container for a "sausage sizzle" (grilled sausage) is a slice of plain white bread.
dylan604 · 28m ago
so do you place the sausage along the hypotenuse or parallel with one of the sides? this feels more important than top vs side slices.
dkarl · 4h ago
I'm with you 90%. However, side-cut buns have one advantage top-cut buns don't: if you're very careful and a little bit lucky, you can open them all the way and toast them face down on a griddle with butter.
Clearly we need a special cooking tool that is like a toaster heating element that can be buttered and inserted into a top-cut bun to get the best of both worlds.
hgomersall · 4h ago
Why are they even cut at all!? Do people not have knives any more?
focusedone · 3h ago
This one guy wants to throw away the greatest culinary achievement in 100 years, the greatness of which all other accomplishments are judged by.
vel0city · 4h ago
When I'm just grilling links outside, it's easier to not bother with all the extra prep space to bother slicing all those buns.
Just grab a bun from the bag, drop in a dog, hand it off to someone to dress it however they want at the line of condiments.
There's practically zero chance I'm buying non-precut hotdog buns when there's a cut variety already on the shelf.
aidenn0 · 4h ago
You could say the same thing for sandwich bread, but it's rather obvious to me why both that and hot-dog buns are pre-sliced, so I'm not sure if you're being serious.
mystified5016 · 4h ago
Cutting bread is tedious. Have you heard of these new fantastic labor-saving devices?!
As an immigrant to the U.S., I am glad that the U.S. has better protections for the public than some other countries (although inferior to the EU), AND I think that the current legally fraught situation is insane and untenable, both for companies who must obey an insane thicket of regs and laws (which drives them to constantly decrease "quality" and add sugar), and for the supposedly chronically ill almost everybody.
CGMthrowaway · 2h ago
Who downvoted you so hard and why?
wpollock · 4h ago
> Strikingly, media reports indicated that some food manufacturers began adding sesame to products that previously did not contain the ingredient following the implementation of the new allergen labeling requirements (Aleccia, 2022; Chatman, 2023; Hughes, et al., 2023).
I have to wonder if they really started adding sesame, or just began accurate labeling?
pdpi · 4h ago
Really started adding. This is the key quote:
Second, we document that, following the enactment of the federal law,
some food manufacturers engaged in risk mitigation by adding small
amounts of sesame to products that previously did not contain the
ingredient. Doing so allowed firms to use the safe harbor provided by
the allergen labeling rule rather than the ambiguous and non-protective
“may contain” precautionary labeling. This was most observed in the breads
and buns category, products for which the prevention of cross-contamination
may have been more challenging and the likelihood of a recall or litigation
higher.
dylan604 · 26m ago
I also wondered if they didn't just start labeling as such since they couldn't guarantee that things didn't get contaminated with sesame. "This product is made in a facility where sesame is used"...even if we didn't use sesame in this product being the unwritten part.
Shortly after the hospital incident and after much time spent scrutinizing every ingredient label the law changed. We were excited about this at first. It became much easier to identify things we couldn't have in the house.
The unfortunate side effects of the law were most visible in the bread aisle, where nearly every item now contains sesame. This included all of the store brands and most of the brand-name products. Initially, we were limited to only one brand of bread (shout out to Kings Hawaiian). We also found a few artisan / local boutique options we could trust, but that's a pretty expensive way to make a PB&J.
Our situation has improved a bit. Recently a second, slightly less expensive, name brand sandwich bread went sesame-free. We're still stuck with oddly expensive artisanal hotdog buns. Why are the fancy ones all top cut instead of side cut? It's just weird that way.
Anyway, I expect that eventually more brands will go sesame-free as recipes change and factories go through whatever update process where it makes sense to separate allergens.
We're still happy about the regulation change and how easy it is now to identify dangerous items. Seeing global brands add sesame to a product to avoid whatever cost necessary to change their process was...not endearing. Hopefully their share price went up a few cents I guess.
How very dare you. They're the superior cut and it's appalling side cut even exists. To answer your question though it's because that cut originates from New England and is used for "higher end" foods like lobster rolls. So they're perceived as fancier.
But they're just objectively better. Side cut buns are uneven which makes sense for a sandwich where you a thicker top bun but is utterly ridiculous for a top facing slice. Can you imagine a taco where one half of the tortilla was like three times as thick? Like look at this https://imgur.com/tF9uBp7 — absurd. That little flappy thing just falls apart. Also the flat part of the roll is at the bottom so when you top cut your hot dog can stand upright on the plate and not fall over. Typically the sides of top cut rolls are also flat which makes grilling/toasting the roll much easier. You get a delicious crispy buttery on the outside fluffy on the inside roll.
Yeah. Because it would suck if your hand-picked lobster fell out of your bun onto the ground (It also allows you to pour melted butter over the top, something you can't do on a sidecut bun).
If you like hot dogs I would hope you feel the same way about your hot dog.
You make a good argument. I see the functional point of a top cut. Helps prevent condiment excursions. Less likely to break in half. BUT, it's just so much bread. And the hotdog does want to pop out.
I'm unaware of any baseball park or hotdog stand where top-cut buns are sold. This is clearly an established best practice. Hotdog consumers have made an aesthetic choice here.
Baseball Park: Fenway[1]
Hotdog Stand: Not uncommon in Rhode Island (and probably other parts of New England). I've seen Saugys[2] sold from food trucks in side-cut buns but it's the exception rather than the rule.
1: https://newengland.com/yankee/history/fenway-franks/
2: https://saugys.com/
Then again, in Australia, the standard container for a "sausage sizzle" (grilled sausage) is a slice of plain white bread.
Clearly we need a special cooking tool that is like a toaster heating element that can be buttered and inserted into a top-cut bun to get the best of both worlds.
Just grab a bun from the bag, drop in a dog, hand it off to someone to dress it however they want at the line of condiments.
There's practically zero chance I'm buying non-precut hotdog buns when there's a cut variety already on the shelf.
FDA warns top U.S. bakery not to claim foods contain allergens when they don't - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40797790 - July 2024 (580 comments)
I have to wonder if they really started adding sesame, or just began accurate labeling?
https://www.foodallergy.org/resources/fare-responds-companie...
Edit: I mean, it's also in the linked article! Just keep reading!