Last week’s well-attended Briefing on the new EU Allergen Regulations was held by Prestige Purchasing and provoked mixed reactions from its audience of hospitality and catering managers: some found reassurance that they were tackling the challenge along the right lines, whilst others were only beginning the necessary analysis and process, and were given much to think about by Zoe Firth’s presentation, and the Q + A that followed.
Growing numbers
The numbers are big: over 2 million people in the UK now have their food choice dictated by their allergy – and the number is growing all the time. That’s 1 in 25 adults, and 1 in 13 children.
A food allergy is a potentially serious or even fatal immune response to eating or coming into contact with certain foods or food additives. An allergen is the substance in a food that can cause an allergic reaction.
Under the new laws coming into effect this December, there are 14 different food allergens that will have to be clearly listed. All establishments or suppliers providing food products will need to provide full allergy information to their customers.
The information must be available upon request on menus, in information folders, or verbally by trained staff.
What type of foodservice companies will be affected?
Quite simply, all foodservice companies will have to be able to provide accurate, consistent information on the allergenic ingredients used in the foods they provide.
To do this, they will need systems to capture and record the information.
It will not be acceptable to say ‘Don’t know’ or ‘May contain allergens’. Staff will need training in order to understand food allergies, the new processes, and be able to answer customer questions.
It will be necessary to receive and record allergen information from all suppliers in your food chain, and also to record the ingredients used for in-house recipes: traceability is essential.
Enforcement
Trading Standards Officers are charged with enforcing the Regulations but, given the scarcity of resource, are likely to be reactive (responding to complaints) rather than pro-active.
Existing legislation and regulation continues to apply and Environmental Health Officers, for example, may in future look harder for evidence of cross-contamination. Health and Safety and Hygiene standards also continue to apply.
However, customers themselves are also becoming increasingly aware and less forgiving: get your processes and/or information wrong, cause an allergic reaction, and they will not only be complaining to Trading Standards, but may well be taking legal advice.
The positives
There is a potential upside: as indicated at the start, there are a lot of people out there who have to live with allergies, and there are many who also now choose gluten free food though not actually suffering from gluten.
These people, and the families, friends and colleagues with whom they would like to eat out, represent a large, growing and under-serviced market – and therefore a good business opportunity.
They also use social media to share ‘good’ news (as well as bad).
Get your offering – and processes – right, therefore, and good PR, good reputation, and good business will follow!
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