The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) has released a new guidance document designed to help UK food manufacturers reduce allergen-related incidents and product recalls.

Created in collaboration with FDF members and supported by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the Allergen Recall Prevention guidance provides essential considerations, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to follow in order to prevent, manage, and investigate food allergy incidents.

The guidance aims to protect consumers with food hypersensitivities, estimated to exceed two million people in the UK, while also helping businesses mitigate costly product recalls.

“Sometimes, food products need to be recalled to ensure consumer safety,” said Olayemi Fashesin-Souza, Regulatory Manager at the FDF. “Our latest guidance offers manufacturers a proactive approach to minimise allergen-related recalls. By implementing this guidance, companies, in particular smaller businesses, can improve the strength of their food safety procedures and stop any potential issues before they arise.”

Four primary causes of allergen incidents

The guidance outlines preventive measures for each of the four primary causes of allergen incidents, providing manufacturers with a framework to enhance food safety management:

• Incorrectly or not declaring allergenic ingredients – when an intentionally used allergen is not declared or is incorrectly declared (e.g. not in English or not emphasised)
• Mismatch of product to packaging – when the packaging doesn’t accurately represent the product inside (e.g. product in wrong packaging or use of wrong label)
• Incorrect ‘free-from’ allergen claims – when a ‘free-from’ allergen claim declared on a product is incorrect due to it containing that allergen as an ingredient or via unintended presence (e.g. may contain)
• Not declaring unintentional allergen presence – when a non-deliberately added allergen has been incorporated into a product and not declared on the label (e.g. ‘may contain’)

The FDF’s guidance offers a detailed overview for each of these situations, helping manufacturers assess root causes and implement robust safety practices. The guidance integrates seamlessly into existing food safety management systems, making it a practical resource for businesses.

‘300 allergen-related incidents each year’

Darren Whitby, Head of Incidents and Resilience at the FSA, emphasised that while the UK industry maintains high food safety standards, incidents still occur.

“The FSA is typically notified of and manages around 300 allergen-related incidents each year.

“This new guidance published by the FDF today helps companies to identify the underlying causes to help prevent future incidents and improve food allergen management systems”.

Susan Jebb OBE, Chair of the FSA, commented, “Food manufacturers need a robust system that covers the entire manufacturing operation to help identify and mitigate potential allergen issues. This guidance provides useful areas of focus when investigating the causes of allergen-related incidents to prevent future occurrences.”

Jebb added, “The FSA has a long-term ambition to improve the quality of life for people with food hypersensitivities. I encourage food businesses to read and use this FDF guidance to develop and maintain effective allergen risk management systems to help protect their customers”.