Managing food allergens in the food supply chain - viewed from different stakeholder perspectives

Abstract

The management of food allergens involves several stakeholders including food manufacturers, consumers, enforcement authorities and analytical laboratories. The MoniQA Working Group "Food Allergens" and representatives of these stakeholder groups develop a synthesis of their needs and requirements, identify gaps and suggest ways forward to address these gaps. Analysis for food allergens is an essential adjunct to hazard and risk management procedures within the food industry. These analyses are important for enforcement authorities who require reliable methods in support of both the specific food labelling legislation and the more general food safety legislation. Furthermore, analytical methods are essential in the validation/verification of cleaning protocols, which help to reduce levels of potentially contaminating allergen to one that is no longer harmful for the majority of the allergic consumers. Nevertheless, there is a general lack of validated and robust analytical methodology for analysis of most food allergens. On the one hand, universally recognized reference materials are missing, on the other hand there is an urgent need to harmonise validation protocols at an international level. Currently, members of theMoniQAWG "Food Allergens" together with the AOAC Allergen Community are developing a validation protocol for allergen ELISA-based test kits helping to provide standardised methods with known acceptance criteria for the users as well as for the method developers. The Working Group will seek to develop the initiative required to address these issues, in collaboration with other organisations e. g. the EuroPrevall project, FARRP, AOAC and the CEN WG12 Food Allergens over the coming years.