Sep 27th, 2023
3 mins
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) have recently published updated guidance on food allergen labelling and information requirements. The guidance is a result of the consultation which ran between March and May this year and aims to help food businesses in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland to follow the requirements.
Several recommendations are made including:
- Only apply a PAL if there is an unavoidable risk of allergen cross-contamination which cannot be sufficiently controlled by segregation and cleaning.
- Specify which of the 14 major allergens the PAL refers to for example, using “may contain peanuts” rather than a generic “may contain nuts” statement.
- Use PAL statements in combination with a ‘vegan’ label, where a risk of cross-contamination with an allergen has been identified. A ‘vegan’ label communicates different information to a ‘free-from’ claim, which is food safety information aimed at different consumer groups.
- Do not use a PAL statement alongside a “free from” statement. This is because a ‘free-from’ claim is a guarantee that the food is suitable for all with a food hypersensitivity to that allergen.
The guidance also covers the use of No Gluten Containing Ingredient (NGCI) statements for food businesses in the non-prepacked food sector.
You can access the guidance here
