Allergy advice helps businesses

Tuesday 21 April 2009

An evaluation of the Agency's allergy guidance has found that a majority of businesses and local authority food law enforcement officers find it a help in their work. Of those surveyed, all manufacturers and 96% of enforcement officers, who are aware of the FSA's 2006 best practice allergy guidance, found it useful.

The voluntary best practice guidance on allergen management and consumer information focuses on ways that businesses can avoid allergen cross-contamination in factories and advises on using appropriate allergy labelling.

The purpose of the evaluation was to determine how aware businesses are of the guidance, how applicable it is, and whether any improvements could be made.

About 400 manufacturers, retailers and training bodies were interviewed. The main findings were:

• 53% of food manufacturers and 81% of large businesses are aware of the full guidance and/or the leaflet
• 100% of manufacturers and 96% of enforcement officers, who are aware of the guidance, rate the full guidance as useful
• 90% of enforcement officers are using the guidance
• among manufacturers, the FSA was the most recalled and influential organisation when thinking about food allergy

Of the businesses that had read the guidance, some used it to check the adequacy of their existing procedures. For others, it led them to make fundamental changes to the way that they control allergens within their premises.

In addition, some helpful suggestions were made for additional advice to be provided by the Agency.

The full evaluation research report and guidance, as well as an accompanying leaflet for smaller businesses, can be found at the links below.