Allergen alert! An important reminder and update.

We have previously alerted to new Regulations which will come into force in December 2014 and which will affect all operators serving food on their premises, pre-packed or otherwise. 

Mandatory obligations for foodservice businesses include:

• Allergen information should be easily accessible, visible and clearly legible;
• Where it is not practical for this information to be in a written format, businesses should use clear signposting to direct the customer to where this information can be found, such as asking members of staff;
• Allergen information should be made available for the entire dish served, and where food is provided in a buffet format, it should be provided for each item separately; and
• Businesses providing allergen information orally from a member of staff must ensure it is consistent, accurate and verifiable upon challenge. Verification of this information should be provided in written form.

The Food Standards Agency has issued updated Guidance on these significant changes which can be found here.

The list of critical allergens follows (we quote!):

• Cereals containing gluten namely wheat (such as spelt and Khorasan wheat), rye, barley, oats and their hybridised strains and products thereof, except:
  • wheat based glucose syrups including dextrose
  • wheat based maltodextrins
  • glucose syrups based on barley
  • cereals used for making alcoholic distillates including ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin
• Crustaceans and products thereof (for example prawns, lobster, crabs and crayfish)
• Egg and products thereof
• Fish and products thereof, except:
  • fish gelatine used as carrier for vitamin or carotenoid preparations
  • fish gelatine or Isinglass used as a fining agent in beer and wine
• Peanuts and products thereof
• Soybeans and products thereof, except:
  • fully refined soybean oil and fat
  • natural mixed tocopherols (E306), natural D-alpha tocopherols,
  • natural D-alpha tocopherol acetate and natural D-alpha tocopherol
  • succinate from soybean sources
  • vegetable oils derived phytosterols and phytosterol esters from
  • soybean sources
  • plant stanol ester produced from vegetable oil sterols from
  • soybean sources
• Milk and products thereof (including lactose), except:
  • whey used for making alcoholic distillates including ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin
  • lactitol
• Nuts (namely almond, hazelnut, walnut, cashew, pecan nut, Brazil nut, pistachio nut and Macadamia nut (Queensland nut)) and products thereof except for nuts used for making alcoholic distillates including ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin
• Celery and products thereof
• Mustard and products thereof
• Sesame seeds and products thereof
• Sulphur dioxide and sulphites at concentrations of more than 10mg/kg or 10mg/L (litre) in terms of the total SO2 which are to be calculated for 13 products as proposed ready for consumption or as reconstituted according to the instructions of the manufacturers
• Lupin and products thereof
• Molluscs and products thereof (for example mussels, clams, oysters, scallops, snails and squid)