Do you expect to find cow’s milk in a coconut drink? Fish in chicken pesto pasta? Gluten in a product clearly labelled as ‘gluten-free'? Peanuts in wheat products?

Unexpected or undeclared allergens and the misrepresentation of food continue to make news headlines and are the leading cause of food recalls globally. While the impact on brand reputation can be financially damaging, the impact on consumers sensitive to allergen contamination can be devastating.

Food industry awareness of allergens and food misrepresentation has dramatically increased over the past decade, so why do we continue to have ongoing challenges managing them?

What are the current industry challenges

Undeclared allergens in manufactured foods or raw materials can potentially have global impacts due to high volumes and wide distribution networks. Food services face the same risks but will typically have a more localized impact.

The current challenges stem from our increasingly complex food supply chains and changing eating habits. This is coupled with a reliance on accurate labelling to communicate allergen risk to susceptible people or communities. Allergen contamination can occur at any stage of the food supply chain from primary production, transport, storage, and manufacturing through to food service.

The addition or substitution of cheaper adulterants for economic gain is lucrative and therefore not uncommon. Just on its own food fraud can damage customers and consumer confidence in your products and brand, but when the substitution involves an allergenic substance it can also have deadly consequences.

To read more about food fraud and supply chain risk, click here.

Primary production challenges arise from competitive global market pressures to produce high-quality products at the lowest possible price.

Farmers using rotational cropping and the widespread sharing of harvesting, storage, and transport equipment between crops often inadvertently contribute to cross-contamination between cereals that contain gluten and those that don’t. Crustacea and prawns have sulphite added postharvest to preserve their fresh appearance. Given the variables within the process, validation is often difficult and there is the possibility that concentrations of sulphites may exceed the regulatory or specified acceptable limits.

Food manufacturing facilities typically handle multiple allergens that need to be managed from receival, right through to storage, processing, packing, labelling, and distribution. Direct allergen contamination can be caused by:

• Poor management of systems, lack of process controls, and ineffective implementation in production areas that require physical or time segregation between allergens and non-allergens.

• Poor equipment design and inadequate cleaning procedures may allow production residues to remain and contaminate subsequent production runs.

• Introduction of new allergens through product development trials and non-production areas such as staff canteens and vending machines.

Learnings in allergen management

All GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) and retailer food safety standards have high-level expectations and prescriptive requirements for allergens. Fundamentals for effective allergen management include:

• Knowing your supplier(s) and communicating regularly on the source(s) of raw materials so that inherent allergen risks are understood. If a raw material is intended for use in a product that makes a ‘free from’ claim, this needs to be known by the supplier to ensure changes to the allergen status are prioritized and communicated.

• Understanding the unique risks and allergen status of all raw materials. While this information should be detailed in a product specification, its accuracy and reliability will depend on the technical knowledge and competence of the author. Often product specifications are completed remotely without a site assessment being undertaken to identify actual allergen risks.

• Applying a rigorous risk assessment to identify the potential for allergen contamination at each step in the manufacturing process. The flow of allergenic material, from receipt through to finished product despatch, needs to be mapped to identify specific points of potential contamination.

• Implementing, monitoring, and reviewing the ongoing effectiveness and sustainability of controls such as segregation of allergenic products or production scheduling to minimize the frequency of changeovers between allergen and non-allergen-containing products.

Mitigating the allergen risk with food safety standards

Building and retaining collective knowledge remains challenging as communicating changes to the allergen status of raw materials and finished products throughout the food supply chain is onerous and requires ongoing monitoring, reporting, and feedback.

Sustained focus and rigor in allergen management at all stages of the food supply chain will reduce the incidence of unexpected allergens. Increasing the maturity of your food safety culture can help embed and evolve allergen-related safety in your organization.

Implementing standards that actively manage the challenges posed by allergens will be the key to future success:

BS EN ISO 22000 Food safety management systems covers how any organization in the food chain can implement and operate a food safety management system that produces food that’s safe for consumers to eat. It provides clear guidance and recommendations that apply to the whole food chain, from primary production to retail, hence contributing to reducing food hazards.

BS EN 15842 Detection of food allergens specifies general guidelines for the requirements and use of reference materials for the determination of allergenic commodities in food products.

PAS 96 Guide to protecting and defending food and drink from deliberate attack. The purpose of PAS 96 is to improve the resilience of all parts of production and supply chain against attack.

As your consumers' allergy needs continually evolve, having the flexibility and visibility to access the latest industry best practices is crucial for ensuring their safety. A BSI Knowledge subscription puts the control in your hands, with traceability to monitor and demonstrate your business's access to standards, and self-serve functionality that enables you to manage your subscriptions, standards, users, and content quickly and simply. Request to learn more.

Ensure your organization is managing allergen risk effectively by adding these standards to your collection today.