Development of reference materials: Objectives, deliverables and milestones

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is an independent non-ministerial government department working across England, Wales and Northern Ireland to protect public health and consumers' wider interests in food. Food hypersensitivity (food allergy, intolerance and coeliac disease) is a key priority for the FSA. Since 1994, FSA (and its predecessor department) has invested over £20 million in funding over 60 research projects, as part of its Food Allergy and Intolerance Research (FAIR) Programme [2], [3]. The key themes in the current FSA strategy (2022 – 2027) are ‘Food is safe’, ‘Food is what it says it is’ and ‘Food is healthier and more sustainable’[4]  Food Hypersensitivity is a key element of the FSA’s Strategy 2022–2027 which notes “We work closely with food businesses to ensure they understand their responsibilities and embed the management of food hypersensitivity in a strong food safety culture. This means consumers can make safer choices about the food they buy.” Hence, providing the means, through appropriate RMs, to improve food allergen analysis aligns with FSA priorities. 

The objectives of the present study were as shown in Table 1. The project deliverables and milestones were as shown in Table 2. This report fulfils the final deliverable of the project.

Table 1: Project objectives

Table 2: Project deliverables and milestones

*By agreement with FSA certain deliverables target dates were relaxed.