Around 1-4 % of the overall population and 5-7 % of infants suffer from food allergies. Food avoidance is the only option for these individuals since there is currently no effective cure. In order to make an informed choice about what is safe to eat, allergic consumers need to be provided with the relevant information about food allergens.
National and international legislation requires the food industry to provide products to be safe for allergic consumers to eat and the analytical community plays a vital role in supporting the food industry in managing allergens in the food chain. The MoniQA Working Group (WG) “Food Allergens”, led by Bert Pöpping (Eurofins) and Clare Mills (IFR), brings together key stakeholders, namely food manufacturers, retailers, consumers, enforcement authorities and analytical laboratories. Together, they are working to develop a synthesis of the needs and priorities, identifying gaps and suggesting ways forward to address these issues.
Recently, the group invited interested stakeholders from food industry, authorities, consumer organisations and method providers to give feedback on the recent achievements of the WG “Food Allergens” and to discuss further requirements and their visions for future developments in this field. In feedback groups, the participants discussed importance and feasibility of the work to be undertaken by the WG. This fertile debate generated useful recommendations for future work and, significantly improved collaboration with the stakeholder groups.
Click on www.moniqa.org/allergens to find more information on the WG’s activities, its members and the deliverables achieved so far, including the publication of the WG on the “management of food allergens in the food supply chain” in the ICC/MoniQA journal “Quality Assurance and Safety of Crops & Foods” (QAS). On the website you can also find food allergen news as well information relevant for different stakeholder groups. This information is regularly updated online.
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