Food News

The Spanish Food Safety Agency (AESAN) has published a document setting out the conditions that would justify precautionary labelling due to the unintentional presence of allergens in pre-packaged foods.

Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 sets out the requirements for mandatory allergen labelling in food. Recently, the Spanish Food Safety and Nutrition Agency (AESAN) published recommendations for precautionary allergen labelling in cases where these substances are present unintentionally. Spain is therefore following in the footsteps of other countries that already have similar documents in place, such as the Netherlands, while progress is being made on the development of harmonised EU-wide regulations on this matter. The recommendations aim to protect consumers' health and their right to accurate and useful information, while avoiding unnecessary warnings that could limit access to certain products for people with allergies. The recommendations also seek to improve the overall assessment of the risk associated with the accidental presence of allergens in food. To this end, a risk assessment based on sound scientific criteria is promoted. The recommendations incorporate knowledge and data from international organisations and expert groups such as Codex Alimentarius, FAO/WHO and the VITAL^® programme, and also involve collaboration with associations representing affected individuals. This approach is based on a comprehensive risk assessment that considers aspects such as HACCP plans implemented within the company (e.g. hygiene control, raw material management and prevention of cross-contamination), together with analytical and scientific information from internal and external sources. The following factors are among those taken into account: supplier certificates, product-specific consumption data, reference doses for sensitive individuals (trigger doses) and analytical results. This enables specific action limits to be set for each product and packaging format, justifying the use of precautionary labelling ('may contain') only where there is an unavoidable, scientifically substantiated risk.

Our extensive experience in reference analytical techniques for allergen detection, such as ELISA and PCR, has enabled us to select the most appropriate methods for each analyte, thus minimising problems associated with cross-reactivity, matrix effects or sensitivity limitations. This enables us to provide our clients with reliable analytical data, allowing them to characterise their products accurately and establish the Action Limits necessary for proper risk assessment. AGROLAB Ibérica's Burgos laboratory has now been accredited in accordance with the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standard for determining allergens from molluscs, crustaceans, Brazil nuts, pecans and macadamia nuts in foodstuffs and swabs using PCR techniques. This extension to its scope reinforces AGROLAB's position as a leading laboratory in allergen analysis. Furthermore, AGROLAB Ibérica holds ENAC NT-70.03 accreditation for the “Gluten and allergen testing in food” programme, which includes the main tests required to comply with the requirements set out in Article 21 of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011.

YOUR PLUS: AGROLAB offers ISO/IEC 17025-accredited analyses for all allergens subject to mandatory declaration in the European Union.

Authors: Guillermo Gordillo, Dr Isabel Gómez, AGROLAB Ibérica