Better European food labelling laws to help people with food intolerances

Allergy and intolerance to foods in children is common, affecting up to 5–7% of young children. Purchasing suitable foods for these children has always been problematic, particularly as food labelling has been complex, unclear and sometimes incomplete. It has proved difficult to identify food allergens with any certainty and many parents have little spare time to scrutinize food labels. There have been major concerns about people mistakenly eating foods they are allergic to and suffering fatal anaphylactic reactions. The EU directive 2003/89/EC has introduced new food labelling laws in order to protect and provide information to consumers with food allergy and intolerance. They should ensure that all consumers are given better ingredient information and make it easier for people with food allergies to identify ingredients they need to avoid. EU Member states have introduced these regulations from 25 November 2004.

Which food ingredients does it apply to?

The new law requires that 12 common food allergens have to be clearly identified on food ingredient labelling. The 12 food ingredients (including products of) are:

• • Milk (includes milk from cows, sheep, goats and buffaloes)
• • Eggs (includes chicken, duck, turkey, quail, goose and guinea fowl eggs)
• • Peanuts
• • Nuts from trees (i.e. Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, almonds, cashews, pecan nuts, pistachio nuts, macadamia nuts and Queensland nuts)
• • Fish (includes all fish species and products)
• • Crustaceans (includes lobster, crab, prawns and langoustine)
• • Soybeans
• • Gluten (found in wheat, rye, barley, oat, spelt and kamut grains, including their hybrinised strains)
• • Celery (includes celery sticks and root celery)
• • Mustard (includes the mustard plant, its leaves and its sprouted seeds, mustard flour, table mustard, and mustard oils)
• • Sesame seeds (includes tahini and sesame oil)
• • Sulphur dioxide and sulphites at concentrations of more than 10 mg kg⁻¹ or 10 mg l⁻¹ expressed as SO₂

All added ingredients and components of added ingredients are included in the new legislation. Allergens in carry‐over additives, additives used as processing aids, solvents and media for additives or flavourings and any other substances used as processing aids are identified. Where a food allergen is not clear by the ingredient name only (e.g. gelatin), the food allergen source should always be included in the food ingredients list, e.g. fish gelatin.

Some manufacturers have voluntarily extended their food allergen information and provided an additional ‘contains’ allergen box on food packaging, e.g. product contains ‘milk’ or ‘gluten’, although this information should still be cross‐referenced with the ingredients list in case of error.

Does this apply to all foods?

Unfortunately this law only applies to prepackaged foods, e.g. canned and packet foods and alcoholic drinks. It does not apply to:

• • Foods sold loose, e.g. sweets or cakes.
• • Food pre‐packed for direct sale, e.g. freshly made bread or cakes sold in supermarkets which have been packaged for hygienic reasons.
• • Fancy confectionery products.
• • Food sold in restaurants.

When does the new food labelling actually start?

The EU member states introduced this directive from 25 November 2004 and products will be prohibited if they do not comply with this packaging from 25 November 2005. Therefore, food manufacturers have been given one full year to adapt their packaging and labelling to the new rules (although the EU law states that any product placed on the market or labelled before this date may be sold while stocks last!). So by the end of November 2005, it should be possible to correctly identify these 12 food ingredients from the food label ingredient list on pre‐packaged foods in EU member states, providing the food is not old stock.

What about the 25% rule for compound ingredients?

The new rules remove the 25% compound ingredient listing exemption or ‘25% rule’ under which individual ingredients making up a compound ingredient in a food do not have to be listed if the compound ingredient made up less than 25% of the finished products. This compound ingredient listing law was introduced at a time when food ingredients were generally simpler and there were fewer concerns about food allergy and intolerance. All hidden allergens within compound ingredients should now be identified on food ingredient lists.

However, the new rules allow some small derogations for ingredients used at less than 2% of the finished product (e.g. where the composition of the compound ingredient is defined in EU law [foods like jam], the ingredients need not be listed). Fortunately these do not override the allergen labelling requirements, so all sources (except through contamination) of the 12 common food allergens still have to be identified on the ingredients label.

Do the new rules apply to the use of ‘may contain’ warnings?

The new rules only apply to the food allergen ingredients that have been deliberately added to foodstuffs, not what have been added unintentionally by food contamination during production. It is not a legal requirement to state on the label that a food might contain traces of certain allergens, but some manufacturers label their products voluntarily in order to indicate their possible presence.

How useful will the new labelling rules be?

Effective labelling of manufactured foods with food allergens is essential for children and older people with food intolerances and allergies. Although the new food labelling law will be welcomed by many, it does not go far enough. It should be extended to foods sold loose, pre‐packed for direct sale or in catering establishments. The latter is particularly important as many reactions to foods occur when people are eating outside the home. Consumer confidence and understanding in the new labelling regulations has yet to be determined, but it will take an impeccable track record, time and education to build up consumer trust in the new food labelling of prepackaged foods.

Food allergen labelling outside the EC

Food labelling of food allergens is an issue that is now being debated widely in countries outside the EU. Indeed, the Codex Alimentarius (the FAO/WHO Commission that determines global food standards) recognise the importance of food allergies and intolerances. Its general standard for the labelling of prepackaged foods (CODEX STAN 1 – Rev 2, 2001) states that the following 8 foods and ingredients are known to cause hypersensitivity and should always be declared: cereals containing gluten, crustacea, eggs, fish, peanuts and soybeans, milk, tree nuts and nut products, and sulphites in concentrations of 10 mg kg⁻¹ or more. It also states that the ingredients of compound ingredients should be declared and have introduced a 5% (instead of 25%) standard for compound ingredients, i.e. where a compound ingredient is less than 5% of the food, the ingredients need not be declared.

In the USA, the Food Allergen Labelling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) has recently been adopted by the US Government and will come into force January 2006. The Act requires food labels to identify in plain English if the product contains any milk, egg, fish, crustacean shellfish, peanut, tree nut, wheat or soybean. The law covers all food items and additives such as spices, additives, flavourings and colourings, which had previously been exempt from allergen labelling. It is likely other countries will introduce similar legislation.