There are different classes of lies -- comission yes, but also of omission and distraction.

It's common to see poultry labeled in the US as "No Antibiotics. No Hormones". The implication is that the brand (or producer or processor) is making some specific claim. The truth is that USDA regulations forbid the use of antibiotics or hormones in poultry. My view is that the labeling, if it omits clarification that this is by government regulation, is misleading.

Another element of commercial practices in the United States is that there is no preemptory screening for validity of business claims. All sorts and manner of fraudulent activity occurs. Only in very select cases are the perps called to account for it.

Claims regarding freedom from some possible contaminant or allergen may not be particularly meaningful, but they aren't, if true, fraudulent. There's a fair case to be made for standardising both the claims and their presentation -- e.g., a standard "allergens and exposure" labeling, much as existing nutritional labels communicate macro and micronutrients and ingredents. That wasn't always the case.

Some of the history: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/WhatWeDo/History/Overviews/ucm05...

... though I seem to recall that more complete ingredients-and-nutritional labels appeared in the 1970s.