A Food Safety Manager’s Guide to Food Allergens
Supplement for paying subscribers
Introduction
Food allergies affect an estimated 500 million people - ten percent of the global population. In the United States, 15 million people live with food allergies. Food allergies result in approximately 30,000 emergency department visits and 150–200 deaths in the USA each year.
Allergen-related recalls are among the top recall types worldwide, with mistakes in labelling and cross-contamination being common causes of allergen recalls.
This special supplement contains information about food allergens, labelling regulations, allergen recall prevention and valuable resources, including links to downloadable templates, tools and free training.
Table of Contents
Precautionary Allergen Labelling (PAL)
Differences in PAL worldwide
Best practices for PAL
How to do PAL
Test methods for detecting and quantifying allergens
Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA)
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
Liquid Chromatography with Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)
Test methods conclusion
Allergen Management Best Practices
Incoming materials
Storage and material handling
Internal audits
New product development
Change management
Facility and equipment design
Production scheduling
Re-work practices
Cleaning protocols
Personnel hygiene
Labelling and artwork control
Employee training and responsibilities
Emergency responses, recalls
Guidance for small businesses and caterers (IFST)
Multilingual resources for food service staff
Risk assessments and controls for food manufacturers with an interactive factory map
Voluntary Incidental Trace Allergen Labelling (VITAL)
Food allergen control inspection checklist
Allergen matrix for food service businesses and small manufacturers
Reference doses, precautionary labelling and exemptions (WHO)
US guidance pages on allergen labelling and cross-contact prevention
UK Industry guidance and free online training for food service businesses
Template for allergen cleaning SOP
Template for allergen cleaning log
Learn about the root causes of allergen-related recalls