Susan fantastic allergen reference document regardless of being Oz specific. I'm sure members will comment regardless, if they see it. Anyway if you're feeling a bit lonely you can always invite some of your Oceanic colleagues to the forums.
Regards,
Simon
Have invited quite a few people already :-) Unfortunately I suspect most are too busy running hard to be able to use IFSQN. I'm a little luckier than most at the moment being able to spend any time on CPD-type activities!
Well I've recently wake-up call re. allergen management and thought I'd share it with the forum. I recently was briefed about a food manufacturer who is taking the approach of labelling with "may contain" statements except for 2 allergens that they've identified as higher risk for them. Due to this, their
HACCP plan does not contain any analysis of their other allergen hazards (milk & egg). They apply controls such as allergen cleans only to the two prioritised allergens.
As a consumer who is allergic to dairy foods I'd always taken the 'may contain' statements as a help rather than a strict rule - ie. if I had a choice, I'd avoid a product with such declarations. But, as those with allergies know, you often don't have much choice at all, and if you don't have a history of anaphylaxic response, then you trade off the risks on a case by case basis.
(to clarify - the milk allergy results in breathing difficulties, rhinitis & congestion that has generally led to chest infections when not treated. Initial treatment is with antihistamines - but all available antihistamines contain lactose - which is not particularly helpful to an auditor with lactose intolerance).
UNtil now I thought the risk was fairly minimal - all the manufacturers I knew were using the statement to cover fairly minimal residual risk levels - having applied GMP controls to all allergens (within reasonable limits) and at least recognising all allergens in their hazard analyses. However this manufacturer clearly does not do even this - all the risk is covered by the labelling declarations.
Based on this there could be anything from trace amounts of allergens to significant amounts, in their products, for all I know.
Now, if we put aside the 'nice' considerations (ie. that manufacturers 'should' minimise use of these statements so that people with allergies are not unduely restricted), the remaining question (for me) is whether the above approach is consistent with the
HACCP methodology. Why, why not?