Allergen Risk Assessment

Good afternoon, 

 

we only have 1 allergen at our company, Fish. 

i need to complete a risk assessment, what is it that i should consider when doing an allergen risk assessment?

 

if there is anyone with an example to share?

 

thank you

Kenny

 

Hi Keneuoe,

 

We are a seafood processing site, handling 8 of the 14 allergens currently.

Our risk assessment is built towards UK retailer requirements so might be a little over the top.

 

We include:

A breakdown of our suppliers

• What product is supplied
• Format (sold / liquid/ powder etc.)
• Allergens handled by the supplier (allergen(s) present in product, any alibi labelling, and other allergens handled on site)

A list of products we produce following the same principle as above.

 

Each step of the process flow with scoring pre and post mitigations in place with justification

 

Additional considerations such as disposal of waste, canteens, visitors, chemicals (such as lubricants), recalls, and new product development etc.

 

Verification sign off by a team

 

Allergen improvement plan, where mitigations in the process flow could not reduce to low risk

 

Alibi labelling decision tree.

 

and a review log

 

I can maybe share but will need to omit some information and it might be overkill 

KSnowden is pretty spot on with their answer.  I'd like to piggy back off of it and say your allergen risk assessment needs to address that you only have one allergen, how it's handled, and what your company would do before considering handling other allergens.

 

I got dinged in my very first SQF audit ever for really overlooking the risk assessment.  We were a spice company that refused to process or store allergens, so my "risk assessment" was a very weak "we don't handle allergens, and management will update if we ever do" type statement on an SOP.  Had to revisit the SOP and discuss that while we didn't handle allergens, what steps should be taken if we accidentally received some.  They wanted to see what our evaluation process would look like if we were to decide to bring allergens in.  Now that I've got more experience, I've helped write allergen RA's for places where all products sold contain allergen, and you still need to discuss the risks from it (even if all products contain the same types and number of allergens, because what if formulation change?)

We also have no allergens; our RA considers risks from the human element-what employees and visitors may inadvertently introduce to the environment and what we do to mitigate it.

Hi- I also have one allergen (egg) that is controlled. Milk,soy and wheat are universal in our plant. Since our egg is controlled we have a program followed 24/7 and HACCP plan RA for it- We measure the personnel risks. See my picture attached. To be performed minimum annually and/or when new risks arise etc. hope this helps

Also worth thinking back to your suppliers to build on the great responses above.  So for example, if they process multiple allergens on one line that they have controls in place.  

 

It's also worth thinking of a hierarchy of risk with allergens too.  People often get obsessed with swabs and cleaning with allergens but forget that artwork approval and controls are part of allergen control measures and are often the reasons for public recalls.  So do think about it holistically, not just controls within the factory.