Allergen Policy-No Allergens

Hello, 

We currently do not have any allergens on site and do not plan on introducing any to our business. Are we still required to have an allergen policy? And if so, how basic can we keep it? I don't see the need to describe how allergens would be controlled/managed in a completely hypothetical way. 

Would we need to train staff on handling allergens even if they are not present?

Yes, you should have something stating that you do not have Allergens. And it is my opinion that you should do allergen training for 1 main reason. What people bring into the plant for breaks/lunch. Do you have vending machines? Are there allergens in it?

No vending machines. 

We have about 10 pages that currently detail allergen management. I would like to cut that down to 1 and include a section on allergens brought to work in our personal hygiene training going forward.

To echo Brian, yes.  Our company got bit by BRC just before my arrival that we had a policy but no training or acknowledgement for visitors/contractos.  Here is our basic alleregen policy "Currently none of the products manufactured by "company name" for our customer contain any of the allergens identified by the FDA or Canadian Department of Health, or the European Union.  If a new product is introduced to the facility by a customer, ACPI management will review the ingredients for any allergens, and will follow a policy agreed upon by the customer in regard to cleaning, testing, and segregation.  A copy of that policy is attached to this document.  Training for allergen awareness is included in our annual food safety training along with visitor/contractor GMP policy"

I use a video series from the "refridgerated foods of america" but here are my new employee slides and the quiz from them.

Here is the statement from my visitors log and contractor training.  "Allergens should not be brought into our facility (peanuts, tree nuts, soybeans, milk, eggs, fish, shell fish, wheat) as we do not manufacture products containing allergens, this could create cross contamination".

Thank you all for sharing! We are a small plant and not GFSI certified yet. I have updated our policy to reflect this including reference to our supplier allergen questionnaire and outside food policy, also mentioning that a policy will be developed if allergens are introduced in the future (highly unlikely).

Hi, 

I downloaded your presentation and quite like it, thanks.

I did want to mention that Mustard is also a priority allergen in Canada since 2012.