Erudus Food Allergy Alerts

Food allergies and intolerances are life changing, affecting around 8% of children and 2% of all adults in the UK. Living with a food allergy can be challenging to say the least but it has been made a little easier with the introduction of the Food Information for Consumers regulation, which came into force in December 2014. The regulation changed how allergen information is provided to consumers by food businesses.

You can read more about Food Information for Consumers here.

The Food Standards Agency led the drive to raise awareness amongst food businesses with various campaigns including this video, which did a great job in giving an insight into living with a food allergy or intolerance.

The Food Information for Consumers regulation means under EU law, any pre-packed food or drink sold in the UK must clearly state on its labelling if it contains any of the EU’s 14 Major Food Allergen ingredients. The same applies for any food or drink sold without packaging, wrapped or cooked on site.

Food businesses need to be able to provide information either in writing or verbally by a staff member. Where the specific allergen information is not provided upfront, where this information can be obtained. Many food businesses choose to list the allergen ingredients of each dish on their menus or in a separate document.

Consumers have the right to ask for this information and can report your business to the local authority should you fail to provide it.

Most food businesses have a very good understanding of what allergen ingredients they’re using within their products/dishes but from time to time they can be recalled by the product manufacturer for incorrect labelling of allergen ingredients or accidental cross contamination during production.

These recalls can often go unnoticed and that’s why we’ve launched the Erudus Allergy Alerts.

The Food Standards Agency publishes allergy alerts for incorrect labelling of allergen ingredients or accidental cross contamination from manufacturers as and when they occur and now so do we. We’ve tried to make it as easy as possible to provide you with quick and easy access to these alerts.

You can check our dedicated Allergy Alerts Page www.erudus.com/allergy-alerts or you can follow the Erudus Allergy Alerts Twitter Feed @ErudusAllergy or search for the hash tag #ErudusAllergyAlerts on twitter.

We only tweet allergy alerts to this twitter account. If you’d prefer them via email or SMS text, you can sign up to the Food Standards Agency Allergy Alerts here.

For even more support with food allergens and a whole lot more, be sure to take a look at the Erudus Resource Centre where you can find lots of free resources designed to support you and your food business.