FSA technical guidance on allergen labelling of prepacked food
The Food Standards Agency's technical guidance covers labelling of the 14 allergens on prepacked food, including emphasis, very small packs, voluntary precautionary statements and enforcement.
Scope and status of the guidance
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has issued technical guidance on allergen labelling and information requirements. It is written for manufacturers, importers, producers, packers, retailers, institutional caterers and other food businesses, and for enforcement authorities.
The text combines regulatory compliance material, which explains how to meet legal requirements, with best practice material, which offers examples of approaches that are not legally required. Best practice is marked with its own heading. The guidance applies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and it does not deal with other labelling matters such as country of origin, quantities, additives or nutrition.
Mandatory allergen information on prepacked food
Any of the 14 listed allergens present in a food, whether as an ingredient or as a processing aid, must be declared. The information has to be accurate, easily visible, clearly legible and indelible, and other written or pictorial matter must not hide, obscure or interrupt it.
- In the ingredients list, allergens must stand out through contrasting font, size, style or background colour. The business decides which method to use. Bold appears in the guidance only as an example, in a suggested allergy advice statement.
- Certain names need a clear reference to the allergen. Examples are spelt followed by wheat, and tahini followed by sesame.
- Where an ingredients list is provided, the Food Information to Consumers rules do not allow a voluntary "Contains" statement to repeat the allergen ingredients.
- An x-height of at least 1.2 mm applies where the labelling surface is 80 cm² or more.
- Where the largest surface of the packaging is under 10 cm², the ingredients list may be left out if the ingredient information is provided by other means or made available at the consumer's request. The allergens must then be declared on the packaging after the word "Contains".
- Some derivatives are exempt from declaration. The guidance gives fish gelatine used as a carrier for vitamin or carotenoid preparations, and natural mixed tocopherols from soybean sources, as examples.
- Sulphur dioxide and sulphites must be declared only when present above 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/litre in the finished product.
- Icons or symbols can indicate allergens only when words and numbers accompany them.
Voluntary statements
A precautionary allergen label (PAL) is a voluntary statement, commonly worded "may contain allergen x" or "not suitable for someone with x allergy". As best practice, the guidance says a PAL should be used only where a risk assessment has identified an unavoidable cross-contamination risk that cannot be sufficiently controlled through measures such as segregation and cleaning. It also says PAL does not replace good hygiene and safety practice, and that it could be regarded as misleading if it does not convey a real risk to the consumer.
Statements should refer to the specific allergen. "May contain nuts" does not alert consumers to peanuts, because peanuts are legumes rather than nuts.
A PAL should not accompany a "free from" claim for the same allergen. A "gluten-free" claim differs, because it is not absolute, and may be combined with a PAL. Gluten-free means no more than 20 mg/kg of gluten in the food as sold to the final consumer. Very low gluten means no more than 100 mg/kg.
Enforcement
Authorised food officers at local authorities are responsible for official controls on allergen rules. The guidance says non-compliance may lead to an improvement notice or a criminal prosecution. Under the Food Information Regulations (FIR), a person convicted of an offence may face a fine with no set upper limit, and magistrates decide its level case by case.
Businesses with specific queries are directed to their local enforcement agency, which is usually the trading standards or environmental health department of the local authority.
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