New Food Allergen Law

There have been some changes in the way food products are labelled recently. You may have noticed how the main food allergens are now printed in bold within the ingredient list. These changes affect packaged food sold in supermarkets. Whilst the font size on most ingredient lists I have read recently appears to have shrunk (or is that my post-40 eyesight!) I have also noticed a few errors lately so it's really important to check everything carefully yourself.

In addition there are some more changes coming to allergen labelling law at the end of the year.

"The Food Standards Agency (FSA) in conjunction with DEFRA are introducing new allergen labelling laws which will come into effect from 13th December 2014 these are called the Food Information Regulations EU1169/2011 (FIR Regs) which affect food purchased from food service organisations."

Liz Allan, whose business "Allergy Aware Kitchen" offers training, information and support to those in the food industry has written an excellent and extremely informative piece directed at the food service industry. 

As consumers it is well worth a read. It explains how the changes will affect consumers and what differences you may expect.