The government has launched a consultation to strengthen allergen labelling laws.
Food outlets selling pre-packaged food directly for sale could be required to follow new rules designed to give the UK’s two million food allergy sufferers greater confidence in the safety of their food.
Under current rules, food prepared on the premise in which it is sold is not required to display allergen information on the package – but the proposed rules could go as far as seeing full ingredients labelling required by law.
Food businesses and allergy sufferers are being invited to have their say on four options put forward to improve the way allergy information is provided for these foods, including:
- Mandating full ingredient list labelling
- Mandating allergen-only labelling on food packaging
- Mandating ‘ask the staff’ labels on all products, with supporting information for consumers available in writing
- Promoting best practice around communicating allergen information to consumers
The closing date for submission of comments is 29 March 2019.