More and more foods bear a mishmash of warnings that they might accidentally contain ingredients that could seriously sicken people with food allergies. Yet there are signs that the labels are creating confusion among families that should heed them — even as new testing shows there is a real, if probably small, chance that foods with even the most vaguely worded warnings truly pose a risk.

The disconnect is sparking calls for standards on what are now voluntary warning labels. The Food and Drug Administration plans to seek advice from consumers and food makers, perhaps by year's end, before considering whether to intervene.

Worried the labels may be losing credibility, the industry's Grocery Manufacturers/Food Products Association already is preparing to update its own guidelines on when foods should carry the warnings.

Consumers see the label "on so many products, they say, 'Oh heck, I'm going to ignore it,'" laments Dr. Steve Taylor, a food scientist at the University of Nebraska who co-authored a recent study about the confusion.

For the seriously allergic, "I've characterized it as akin to playing Russian roulette with a really big gun that has 100 chambers and only one bullet. Sooner or later if you eat these products, you're going to eat the wrong one," he said.

About 12 million Americans have some degree of food allergy. Severe food allergies trigger 30,000 emergency room visits a year, and 150 to 200 deaths a year. Food labels help the allergic avoid ingredients that could sicken them.

A law that took effect last year requires foods that intentionally contain highly allergenic ingredients such as peanuts, shellfish or eggs to disclose that in plain language.

The accidental-allergy warnings are different: They're aimed at foods that aren't supposed to contain a particular allergen but might become contaminated with it. They may be made in the same factory, or on the same machines as allergen-containing goods.

In a report to Congress last year, FDA said a quarter of recently inspected food factories had the potential for such a mix-up.

The warnings are voluntary, so different companies use different, sometimes vague, wording. Nor does anyone count how many foods bear them, although all sides agree more are. Enter the new research, in this month's Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

First, the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network, an influential consumer group, surveyed more than 600 parents of food-allergic children. In 2006, 75 percent said they would never buy a food with an accidental-allergy warning — down from 85 percent when the network posed the same question in 2003.

A warning's wording determined if some parents ignored it: "May contain peanuts" sounds scarier than "packaged in a facility that processes peanuts" — and thus 88 percent said they heeded the first warning while just 64 percent heeded the latter.

That echoes an FDA experiment that found wording matters in persuading allergic consumers to believe the warning.

But are the warnings real? Nebraska's Taylor tested 179 products that bore a variety of accidental-peanut warnings, and found 7 percent did contain peanuts — some of them traces, but some enough to seriously sicken.

That's a small proportion. But Taylor is quick to note he only tested samples from two batches of each product. Test more — say the first batch of oatmeal cookies packaged after the machine was supposedly cleaned of peanut butter cookies — and that number may grow.

Moreover, contrary to some parents' beliefs, peanuts were in some products with every version of the label, including two of 51 foods that bore a "may contain" warning and seven of 68 labeled "made in the same facility."

On the other hand, the allergy network is increasingly concerned that foods that never before carried warnings suddenly are getting them — including puzzling ones, like canned vegetables with nut warnings — a trend perhaps fueling confusion.

"We're seeing every week an increase in the number of these 'may contain' statements on products you wouldn't expect to see them on," says network founder Anne Munoz-Furlong, whose group is pushing FDA and industry for new labeling standards.

"Don't ignore it, because you don't know when it's true," she tells consumers.

The industry is "troubled by what appears to be an increased use of 'may contain' labeling," says Regina Hildwine, labeling policy chief for the grocery manufacturers. "This is not just something that you should put on a package without thinking."

Penny Ackerman of Bethlehem, Pa., is strict about label reading to protect her 3-year-old son, Gregory, who is severely allergic to peanuts and has a milder tree-nut allergy.

But, "we even have to watch labels we didn't used to," she says with frustration.

On a recent grocery trip, Ackerman didn't notice until she got home that the chocolate chips she had always bought with confidence now warned they were made in a factory that uses peanuts. She wonders if the change is because of a new factory, or just that the company hadn't gotten around to labeling until now.

"If you don't see it on the label, is it safe or is it not safe? Because you don't know."

There's a new frontier in the wild world of fashion and a few big name designers have already started to stake their claims. Stella McCartney has joined a select but growing group of fashion designers, including Giorgio Armani and Tom Ford, who are getting under the skin of the beauty business.

Until now, the territory has been left to big-name brands like Clinique, Clarins, Estée Lauder and L'Oréal. But none of these successful brands, where the products more than the label bring the customers to the counters, immediately conjure up a cohesive image of a luxurious lifestyle. Even Chanel, which is arguably the best-known fashion house in the skin-care market, has never concretely linked itself to the image of the brand's designer, Karl Lagerfeld.

But today, in a world gone celebrity crazy, iconic fashion designers want to harness the power of their public persona and use it to launch a line of skin-care products.

It is not as easy as it sounds. The skin-care market is one of the fastest growing segments of the cosmetic world, and the competition is fierce.

"Fashion designers are traditionally linked with fragrance, where style and image are what sells the perfume. In skin care, women are looking more for science than style," said Linda Wells, editor in chief of Allure magazine.

Wells says moving into the field is "a big leap and not a logical association for designers." She says she wonders whether "designers translate their talent in creating well-made, high-priced clothing into a great, high-priced skin-care line."

McCartney, 35, says personal integrity was a key ingredient in her commitment to creating organic skin care products. "I just don't think that there is a great deal of luxury, organic product out there and I've found that quite frustrating," she said in an e-mail interview. "I don't see why the luxury element in a skin care line needs to be compromised in order for the organic element to be fully present."

McCartney's product line, Care, will go on sale in June at Selfridge's, as well as in McCartney's own boutiques. Prices range from £21, or $40, for the Purifying Foaming Cleanser to £46 for the Care 5 Benefits Moisturizing Fluid. The products are already available in Continental Europe.

According to Euromonitor, a global market research company, organic skin care is one of the fastest growing sectors in cosmetics worldwide - and Care's debut can only draw more attention to it.

McCartney's commitment to the environment has been almost as well documented as her popular clothing line. "The main thing is to have integrity and honest products," McCartney said. She worked with YSL Beauté to create the line.

Wells of Allure says that being associated with a major brand helps designers "by giving them access to great research and development" and by lending them credibility.

Armani has again teamed with L'Oréal, which produces the Giorgio Armani Parfums and makeup line for his Crema Nera skin treatment.

"Tom Ford by Estée Lauder" is yet another partnership, created in 2005 for the production of a limited collection of fragrances and beauty products. Now that the connection has been made in consumers' minds, the company has started the Tom Ford Beauty brand.

Its first product was "Black Orchid" perfume, a 50-milliliter, or about one-and-a-half-ounce, bottle that sells for $90 at Neiman Marcus. In May he is introducing a collection of 12 unisex fragrances made with a few rare ingredients.

"For skin care, I don't believe in having masses of references," Ford said. "I like the idea of a very short line with just a few very well defined products."

Armani's thinking was similar when he introduced Crema Nera, or Black Cream, during the Paris haute couture shows in January. The luxury cream, designed to work with skin of all ages, is scheduled to go on sale in September in select stores that carry the Armani cosmetics line.

Its "miracle ingredient" is obsidian, a natural mineral compound of volcanic origin that Armani encountered in the famous mud baths on the Mediterranean island of Pantelleria, where he has a vacation home.

The cream will sell for €250, or $328, for a 1.76-ounce jar. Or, as Armani said at the introductory news conference in Paris: "Lots of creams look alike but some are worth more than others."

Skin care is not to be taken lightly, especially when it comes to getting older. Skincare-News.com's latest article, "Two of a Kind in Anti-Aging Skin Care: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Aging", explains the phenomenon of not just one, but two types of aging.

If these terms don't sound familiar, the concepts are pretty simple to grasp:

In a nutshell, intrinsic aging happens naturally in the aging process. This aging begins in our mid-20s. Extrinsic aging happens when the skin is exposed to outside factors, such as excessive sun exposure.

While intrinsic aging can't be avoided, extrinsic aging is one that everyone should be very aware of:

Extrinsic aging is one of the main contributors to premature aging and the chances of this happening to someone in entirely in that person's hands. The majority of premature aging is caused by sun exposure. Even just the smallest amounts of sun on unprotected skin can result in freckles, age spots, spider veins, fine lines and wrinkles and rough, leathery skin.

Anti-aging products help out greatly in preserving youth but the age old preventive measures also apply:

To prevent extrinsic aging, avoid tanning in salons or out in the sun, wear protective clothing and try to avoid being out in the sun during 10:00am and 4:00pm when the sun's rays are strongest. If the latter is impossible, then be sure to apply sunscreen no matter what season it is.

According to the Skincare News Team's sources, it is possible to age gracefully, whether it is intrinsic or extrinsic, as long as a good daily skin care regimen is implemented along with the best anti-aging and sun care products.

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About SkinCare-News.com -- Your Source for Intelligent Skin Care
Skincare-News.com is the online source for consumers seeking intelligent beauty and skin care news, advice, tips and articles. Founded in 2005, SkinCare-News.com features articles, news items and frequently asked questions on skincare and beauty related issues. SkinCare-News.com is located in Sacramento, California but receives visitors from all around the world. For more information, visit http://www.skincare-news.com.