The National Food Processors Association (NFPA) has released an industry “Code of Practice” for managing food allergens. The purpose of the Code is to delineate the general practices used by food companies that can ensure effective strategies for the management of food allergens.
“This Code is an important step forward by the food industry in addressing the issue of food allergens,” said Dr. Rhona Applebaum, NFPA’s Executive Vice President of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs. “The Code — which has taken more than a year to finalize — was developed with input not only from NFPA member companies but also from the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, the leading consumer group addressing this issue.”
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Dr. Applebaum stated, “Food processors must be diligent in informing consumers about the presence of allergens in their products. Appropriate measures also must be taken to minimize the risk to allergic consumers of coming in contact with food allergens that — despite the use of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) — are inadvertently present in a product and consequently not declared on the label.”
The Code states that NFPA members subscribe to the following practices:
- NFPA members label, in terms commonly understood by consumers, the major food allergens in their ingredient declarations, including those that are part of natural and artificial flavors, and other food components.
- NFPA members use GMPs and other allergen control strategies to manage and minimize the potential cross contact of the major food allergens. These strategies include, but are not limited to, training, separation, sanitation and scheduling.
- In those instances where GMPs and other allergen control strategies are being followed but are not reliable in sufficiently minimizing the risk of allergen cross contact, then ingredient declarations or supplementary information, such as allergen labeling or inclusion of addition food allergen information, would be appropriate. NFPA members will take an active role in education employees, business partners, ingredient suppliers, food service customers and consumers about food allergens.
- NFPA and its members continue to develop processing, analytical and operational strategies to further reduce the risk to allergic consumers of ingesting food allergens.
Allergenic proteins in and derived from the following foods are the major food allergens in the United States: egg, fish, milk, peanuts, shellfish, including crustacea (e.g., crab, crayfish, lobster and shrimp) and mollusks (e.g., claims, mussels and oysters), soy, tree nuts (e.g., almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts/filberts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts) and wheat. Ingredients made from these foods that do not contain protein are not allergenic.
“The food industry takes the issue of food allergens very seriously,” Dr. Applebaum noted. “This Code clearly demonstrates the commitment of NFPA members to ensure that all potential allergens are clearly labeled on food packages, and that no inadvertent allergens are contained in food products.”
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By GlobalDataNFPA is the voice of the $460 billion food processing industry on scientific and public policy issues involving food safety, nutrition, technical and regulatory matters and consumer affairs.
For more information on this issue, visit NFPA’s Website at http://www.nfpa-food.org.
