The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have conducted five joint expert consultations to develop a new, precise, risk-based approach to allergen management, moving away from the precautionary hazard-based approach.
For a long time now, since the 1980s when a voluntary warning first appeared, allergen labelling has been focused on a more precautionary hazard-based approach, where even the slightest possibility of contamination results in warnings such as “May contain nuts” or “Manufactured in a facility that also processes nuts.”
The food industry introduced the hazard-based approach at the time due to lack of data to characterise the risk to health posed by an unintended allergen presence (UAP) from allergens cross-contact.
With over 220 million consumers worldwide affected by food allergies, the approach, though designed with consumers’ best interests in mind, has limitations. It often creates unnecessary trade barriers and restricts consumer choice.
Therefore, the FAO and the WHO have conducted five joint expert consultations to address these challenges and develop a more precise, risk-based system for precautionary allergen labelling.
Overall, the new method will consider the likelihood and severity of an allergic reaction occurring, instead of labelling foods based on mere possibility, to provide clearer, science-backed information to regulators, food business operators and consumers while fostering fairer trade practices.
FAO & WHO Introduced A New Risk-Based Allergen Management System
