Food Allergy Initiatives in the U.K.

Sue Hattersley

Food Allergy Branch, Food Standards Agency, Aviation House, 125 Kingsway, London, WC2B 6NH

Recent changes in statutory food labelling requirements in the European Union countries have led to significant improvements in the labelling of allergenic ingredients in foods. However, this legislation does not address concerns about possible allergen cross-contamination. Whilst some food producers and retailers are already using various forms of advisory labelling to warn consumers about such risks, consumers are concerned about the possible overuse of such labelling and find the variety of phrases used confusing.

After being approached by industry and consumers, the UK Food Standards Agency decided to produce voluntary best practice guidance to address this issue. This document, which was published on 10 July 2006, aims to provide a single authoritative guide to help businesses look at how food allergens can be managed. It sets out a qualitative approach to the assessing the risk of allergen cross-contamination, using a step-wise decision tree process. Following such a risk assessment, businesses will then be able to decide whether or not advisory labelling is appropriate. The guidance also includes a recommendation to use one of 2 phrases, if such advisory labelling is appropriate.

The UK Food Standards Agency is also developing guidance on allergen information provision for foods that are not provided pre-packed, including in the catering environment. This guidance is not yet finalised but a draft was issued for a 12-week public consultation period that ended on 27 September 2006.

These initiatives and other work to help food allergic consumers being taken forward by the UK Food Standards Agency will be discussed.