Understanding the new food allergen rules

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Understanding the new food allergen rules

• Dr. Chun-Han Chan
• Food Allergy Branch

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Key facts

• 1.92m people have food allergy in the UK
• 1 in 100 people have coeliac disease in the UK
• 2011-12 estimated 4,500 hospitalisations
• 10 deaths / year attributed to food allergy
• There is no cure, therefore need to observe
  avoidance
• Read ingredient labels
• Look out for hidden allergens

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Food labelling is changing

• Moving from General Labelling Regulation
  (2000/13/EC) to Food Information for Consumers
  Regulation (1169/2011/EC)
• Three year transition period from the coming into
  force date from 13 December 2014 new rules on
  allergen labelling shall apply
• Existing requirements for pre-packed foods are
  retained but new requirement to emphasize
  allergenic foods in the ingredients list
• Introduction of new requirement to provide
  allergy information for unpackaged foods

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Scope of the Regulation

• Covers business operators at all stages of food
  chain concerning provision of information to
  consumers
• Food intended for the final consumer
• Foods delivered by mass caterers
• Foods intended for supply to mass caterers
• Also applies to catering services provided by
  transport leaving from the EU Member States
• airline catering
• trains
• boats / ships

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Annex II The big 14
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Mandatory particulars

• Article 9(1)c - Any ingredient or processing aid
  listed in Annex II, or derived from a substance
  or product listed in Annex II causing allergies
  or intolerances, used in the manufacture or
  preparation of a food and still present in the
  finished product, even if in an altered form
• Article 9(2) - The specified allergenic foods to
  be indicated with words and numbers - they may
  additionally be expressed by means of pictograms
  or symbols

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Article 12 13 Clarity and Legibility

• For prepacked foods, mandatory information to
  appear directly on the package or on a label
  attached to it
• Mandatory food information to be available and
  easily accessible for all foods
• Mandatory information to be marked in a
  conspicuous place, be easily visible, clearly
  legible and, where appropriate, indelible. It
  should not be hidden, obscured, detracted from or
  interrupted by other written or pictorial matter

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Article 14 Distance selling

• In the case of foods offered for sale by means of
  distance communication, mandatory food
  information to be available before purchase is
  concluded and to appear on the material
  supporting the distance selling or be provided
  through other appropriate means clearly
  identified by the food business operator
• All mandatory information to be available at the
  moment of delivery

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Article 21 Labelling of allergens

• Unless exempt, allergens to be indicated in list
  of ingredients with clear reference to name of
  the substance or product as listed in Annex II
  i.e. whey (milk)
• Allergenic ingredients to be emphasized through a
  typeset that clearly distinguishes it from the
  rest of the ingredients by means of the font,
  style or background colour
• In the absence of a list of ingredients, the
  indication of the allergenic ingredients to
  comprise the word contains followed by the name
  of the substance or product listed in Annex II
• Where several ingredients or processing aids in a
  food originate from a single allergenic
  ingredient, the labelling shall make it clear for
  each ingredient or processing aid concerned

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EU FIC Labelling
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Article 21 continued

• Where the name of the food (i.e. box of eggs, bag
  of peanuts) clearly refers to the allergen
  concerned, there is no need for a separate
  declaration of the allergenic food
• Use of Allergy Boxes
• The voluntary use allergen advisory boxes to
  declare the presence of allergenic ingredients in
  prepacked foods with ingredients lists not
  permitted
• Allergen information found in a single and
  consistent place

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Article 36 Voluntary information

• The Commission has option to introduce new rules
  on the following voluntary information
• information on the possible and unintentional
  presence in food of substances or products
  causing allergies or intolerances
• Precautionary allergen warnings (may contain)
  can still be used for prepacked food and
  non-prepacked to be applied after a thorough
  risk assessment and to communicate a real risk to
  the consumer
• Permits the introduction of agreed phrases or
  allergen reference doses for the unintentional
  presence of allergens in prepacked foods

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Article 44 non-prepacked food

• A new requirement for allergen ingredients
  information to be provided for non-prepacked
  foods and food provided prepacked for direct sale
• Foods are offered to sale to the final consumer
  or to mass caterers without pre-packaging, or
  where foods are packed on the sales premises at
  the consumers request or prepacked for direct
  sale, the provision of the information about
  allergenic ingredients is mandatory

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Article 44 non-prepacked foods cont

• Oral provision also permitted, provided the
  business indicates clearly that such information
  can be obtained upon request
• Oral information must be accurate, consistent and
  verifiable upon challenge
• What is consistent? Is there a process in place
  to enable consistent information to be provided?
  For example to refer queries to the nominated
  person(s)
• What is verifiable? Ingredients information on a
  chart, recipe book, ingredients information
  sheets, scrap books with labels etc

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Article 44 non-prepacked foods

• Could declare allergen ingredients information
  through a contains statement, charts, tables etc.
• i.e. chicken tikka masala Contains milk,
  almonds (nuts)
• Consider Article 12 and 13 on accessibility of
  mandatory information - Marked in a conspicuous
  place, easily visible, clearly legible
• Signposting is required when information is not
  provided written and upfront. It should be where
  consumer would expect to find allergen
  information e.g in a folder, on menu board, at
  till or on the menu card

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Food Allergies Intolerances Before you order
your food and drinks please speak to our staff if
you have a food allergy or intolerance
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Providing allergen information
Dish Cereals containing gluten Crustaceans Eggs Fish Peanuts Soyabean Milk Nuts Celery Mustard Sesame Sulphites Lupin Molluscs
Lasagne  ? wheat   ?       ? ?          
Mushroom risotto         ?   ?        
Lemon cheesecake ? wheat   ?       ? ? almonds            
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Article 44 non-prepacked food

• How are dietary requests communicated from front
  to back of house? e.g. use of chef cards, order
  tickets, receipts
• Preparing foods for allergic consumers- what
  process is in place
• Do you use Safer Food, Better business (SFBB)
  Safe Method Allergy?
• Are you making specific claims i.e. gluten free
• How this claim is verified or validated
• Would no gluten containing ingredients (NGCI)
  statement be better? more factual rather than
  attributed to a set level

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What to do when someone cannot make a choice?

• Consider due diligence and safe guarding of those
  in your care
• Nurseries, primary schools, care homes, hospitals
  (too young, mental illness)
• What process is in place reference to care plan
  and medical records with details of dietary
  history
• Communication between kitchen staff, nurses, care
  givers or those serving food

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Regular reviews, keep it current

• Food businesses need to have processes in place
  to ensure the information they provide is
  accurate
• Regularly review the ingredients information
• Where ingredients change, review the accuracy of
  the recipe
• Do garnishes or dressings change the allergenic
  profile of the meal? Check!
• Accuracy is dependent on the information on
  labelling, updating allergen information for
  dishes, updating staff and consumers

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Communication is key

• Think about the chain of communication
• The person buying the food
• The person handling the food
• The person taking the order
• The person ordering the food

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Communication is key

• Engage with serving staff
• Recipes change
• Ingredients change

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Cross contamination with allergens

• The unintentional presence of allergens is not
  covered under the EU FIC. This is covered under
  the Food Safety Act and General Food Law.
• Regulation No. 178/2002 General Food Law
  Article 14, 2a. Food shall be deemed to be unsafe
  if it is considered to be injurious to health
• Article 14, 3b In determining whether any food is
  unsafe, regard shall be had to the information
  provided to the consumer, including information
  on the label, or other information generally
  available to the consumer concerning the
  avoidance of specific adverse health effects from
  a particular food or category of foods

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Supporting businesses non-prepacked
Developed in collaboration with food industry and
consumer support organisations
http//multimedia.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/publ
ication/loosefoodsleaflet.pdf
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http//multimedia.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/publ
ication/thinkallergy.pdf
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Support for businesses - prepacked
http//multimedia.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/publ
ication/allergy-labelling-prepacked.pdf
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Allergy E-learning
Access free on http//allergytraining.food.gov.uk
/
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Statutory Instrument

• Food Information Regulations 2014 to be
  published by August 2014
• An offence has been committed for failure to
  comply with allergen provisions
• To outline functional working arrangements for
  LAs
• Government Guidance to support Regulation to be
  issued on GOV.UK July 2014
• FSA allergen guidance to support SMEs to be
  issued on www.food.gov.uk July 2014

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Changes to enforcement

• Broadening responsibility
• Unitary authorities and London boroughs, employ
  both TSOs and EHOs  - up to them whether they use
  one or other or both to enforce the UK Food
  Information Regulations (FIR).  This will be in
  most cases EHOs where there is involvement with
  non-prepacked food but in some cases it will be
  TSOs it depends on the arrangements locally
• Where responsibility is split into two tiers, to
  extend the responsibility of second tier
  (district councils) to include allergens checks
  under FIR in England

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Changes to enforcement (2)

• FIR will introduce
• Improvement notices outlines necessary changes
  to reach compliance, timebound
• First tier tribunals businesses to challenge /
  appeal INs
• Criminal sanctions for breaches in food allergen
  provisions food safety
• EHOs / TSOs to help educate the food businesses
  and to maximise the opportunities of LAs to talk
  to businesses

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EUFIC communications

• Joint messaging
• Allergy Awareness Week (28 April 4 May 2014)
• Revised advice issued on Consumers leaflet
  http//www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/publication
  /allergy-leaflet.pdf
• Revised advice and leaflets for SMEs - June 2014
• Engagement with our interested parties
• Food allergen information and updates on the
  regulation can be obtained from
  http//www.food.gov.uk/policy-advice/allergyintol/
  label/

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Next steps

• Second round of enforcement officer training
  October 2014 February 2015
• Joint messaging cascade of change
• Engagement with our interested parties
• Reaching out to smaller businesses
• Healthcare professionals and consumer groups
• FSA technical allergen guidance to be finalised
  July 2014 http//www.food.gov.uk/news-updates/hel
  p-shape-our-policies/allergy-guidance/

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Thank you for listening

• For more information on food allergen
  information
• http//www.food.gov.uk/science/allergy-intolerance
  /label/
• Or
• Email FoodIntoleranceEnquiries_at_foodstandards.gsi.
  gov.uk