Under new plans announced on 5^th March, Government have confirmed that life-saving allergy pens must now be stocked by schools

The move will also see compulsory training for teachers and a requirement for each school to have a dedicated allergy policy.

As well as saving lives, the new measures will help children stay in school, with 500,000 days of learning lost due to allergy-related illness or medical appointments in the last year alone.

The plans come after the government listened to families and campaigners who have fought for change — including Helen Blythe, mother of Benedict Blythe, who tragically lost his life to an allergic reaction at school, and the National Allergy Strategy Group.

Replacing previous non-statutory advice, the consultation on the new guidance on supporting children and young people with medical conditions and allergies is now open, ahead of coming into force in September 2026.

The consultation closes at 11:59pm on 1 May 2026

The new statutory requirements mean for the first time schools must:

• stock “spare” adrenaline auto-injectors for use in emergency situations
• provide allergy awareness training for all staff — covering recognition of symptoms, emergency response and the use of adrenaline devices — alongside improved incident recording and lessons learnt processes
• have a comprehensive policy for supporting children with medical conditions, including Individual Healthcare Plans to record specific arrangements for individuals like an allergy management plan

Schools up and down the country are already undertaking the necessary training to keep children safe. This guidance will standardise practise, pointing to a collection of reliable resources for teachers to use, and work in parallel to the government’s open call to businesses to support with costs such as adrenaline auto-injectors.

Researchers at the University of Surrey and the University of Manchester have launched the AltProt-P eObservatory to track allergic reactions to new types of food.

As we move toward more sustainable food production, new protein sources are becoming more common in our diets. These can include pea protein, lentils, chickpeas, beans, edible insects, seaweed and cultivated meat.

While these help the environment, they may pose new risks for the allergy community. They can trigger reactions in people with existing allergies or even cause people to develop brand-new ones.

The AltProt-P eObservatory (part of the EU “Giant Leaps” project) is collecting data to find out if these proteins are causing real-world reactions. This information will help create a “watch list” to ensure these foods are properly regulated and labelled in the future.

How to get involved

You can help by sharing your experiences and helping researchers understand the safety of these emerging foods.

Who can take part?

• If you are aged 16 years or older.
• Have experienced an adverse reaction to alternative proteins like peas, chickpeas, chia, pumpkin seeds, spirulina, Quorn, seaweed, or insects.

What does participation involve?

You will be asked to complete an anonymous online questionnaire about yourself, your reactions to these new foods, and any existing “classical” food allergies you may have such as allergy to milk, egg and peanuts/treenuts.

The questionnaire can be accessed via the url https://redcap.surrey.ac.uk/surveys/ and by using the code TRPJ4YPRF.

What are the potential benefits of getting involved?

Participation helps improve the understanding of emerging allergies to alternative proteins. This data is vital for finding better ways to protect the public from accidental reactions and ensuring the safety of future food sources.

For further information, visit the Giant Leaps website or contact the team at altprotstudy@surrey.ac.uk

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) have recently launched a consultation concerning how food information is provided to consumers by businesses in the non-prepacked food sector, specifically allergen and ingredient information.

Currently, food businesses in Scotland, and across the UK in the wider context, must inform consumers if they have used any of the 14 mandated allergens as an ingredient in their food.

When food is presented non-prepacked such as food sold in restaurants, made to order sandwiches, food sold loose from bakers and butchers, food businesses can choose how they provide allergen information. This can be done in several ways such as on a label attached to the food or on a notice, menu or ticket that is clearly visible to the consumer or verbally at the place where the consumer chooses the food. If opting to provide such information verbally, food businesses must indicate clearly to the consumer where the allergen information can be found. e.g. a sign stating ‘Please speak to a member of staff.’

On the 11th of December 2024, the FSS Board met to consider a paper which presented general options on how FSS could seek to improve the provision of allergen information in the non-prepacked sector.

The paper asked the Board whether they wished to take a guidance/best practice approach or adopt the same position as the FSA (who had previously expressed a view that it would be in the interests of consumers to take a mandatory approach on a four-country basis) and seek a change in legislation to require businesses to provide consumers with written allergen information for non-prepacked food.

The FSS Board were concerned that mandating the fourteen allergens listed in the Food Information to Consumers (FIC) Regulation alone would not provide all food-allergic or food-intolerant consumers with the same level of protection. However, due to a lack of evidence on the numbers of consumers with an allergy outside of the fourteen specified they were unable to assess the benefits and risks appropriately.

Recognising this is a subject which provokes strong opinions from those affected by food allergies and intolerances, as well as from food businesses and other stakeholders, the Board therefore agreed that a guidance/best practice approach was the preferred route at this time. However, the potential to pursue a legislative route has not been ruled out in the future, depending on how widely and effectively the changes are implemented.

This consultation will last for 12 weeks and can be accessed here.

All responses to the consultation must be submitted by 17^th May 2026.