Whatever the size of your business, ensuring the effective control of food allergens is a significant concern for most food businesses.
There is a reported increase in people living with food allergies and stringent regulatory requirements. Meaning it is paramount that food businesses invest in robust allergen controls.
For this blog we’d like to delve into the essentials of improving allergen controls and the importance of a comprehensive approach to ensure product safety.
Allergen facts
It is estimated that food allergies affect more than 10% of the general population worldwide (source: WHO). In the UK alone, statistics show that around 2.4 million people (6% of adults) have a diagnosed food allergy (source: FSA). This is a worrying global epidemic which rightly so, puts increasing pressure on the food industry to ensure their allergen management procedures are valid and verified. Consumers who are allergic should be able to buy food with confidence in the statements made by the producer.
However, even with more stringent regulatory requirements and more focus from external standards, we are still seeing too many recalls and allergen alerts issued by the Food Standards Agency and its equivalents. The question is, why?
Factors contributing to the breakdown of controls
The data shows that the main cause of allergy alerts is undeclared allergens in products. This is obviously a serious concern for any allergic consumer as the label is their key source of information when making potentially life-threatening food choices.
There are several factors that contribute to the breakdown of allergen controls within a food business. From my experience of managing allergens within food manufacturing and as a trainer/consultant helping businesses to understand their allergen risks. Here’s what I think are the main factors that contribute to system failures:
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- Supply chain risks – not fully understanding the risks in the supply chain and failing to ask the right questions or dig deeper, especially when an SAQ raises a potential concern.
- Risk assessment – a superficial risk assessment created without the use of a team can easily fail to identify all the potential risks that require control. Process mapping is a useful tool here that ensures all parts of the business are covered. E.g. ingredient control (including purchasing and product development considerations), planning, product and people movement etc.
- Training – a lack of training and failure to engage staff at all levels and across all departments is another key contributor. For improving allergen controls everyone needs to understand the importance of their role in protecting consumers and the business from the serious consequences of errors. Keep allergen control front and centre. Using every training opportunity to reinforce the message. Don’t just restrict it to ‘allergen courses’.
We further explore these, and many more factors, on our training courses.
Being proactive and preventative through training
The Codex Alimentarius allergen guidance encourages a proactive and preventative approach. We are strong advocates of this. We believe that having a robust allergen management system along with a positive food safety culture, successfully reduces the risk of our controls failing.
Training all levels of staff is one major factor in the success of a company’s allergen management system. Considering this and the importance of the subject, we have revised our allergen courses. This gives a clear distinction to the level of training required at sites. We now have the following options in our suite of allergen courses:
Allergen Management for Managers
Our Allergen Management course has been revised and updated. It is now solely aimed at those within the business who are responsible for carrying out and completing the risk assessment and the overall management of the system. E.g. technical manager, other senior managers. By challenging the delegates to understand the risks to their business from supply through to customer it focuses on improving allergen controls. Being highly interactive, delegates will have the opportunity to: devise a risk assessment, consider what effective controls are required and what validation/verification techniques they should consider.
NEW COURSE! Practical Allergen Controls
This new, interactive course is aimed at ‘supervisors’ and others responsible for the day-to-day management of allergen controls. Our Practical Allergen Controls course provides a background to allergens and the importance of controlling them. However, it’s key aim is to emphasise the vital role ‘supervisors’ play in ensuring controls are understood and complied with. The course includes a factory practical to assess and challenge the current allergen controls onsite.
Allergen awareness
Our Allergen awareness course is a short bespoke session. It is based around your onsite controls. The aim? To ensure operators understand the importance of allergens and the controls used onsite. This session can be delivered by our trainers (up to 3 sessions in one day) or we can design course material for your onsite trainers to deliver. It can also be adapted for non-factory colleagues who still need an awareness of allergens.
