Anaphylaxis Campaign CEO attends a roundtable meeting with Secretary of State Michael Gove to discuss allergen labelling laws

On Monday 26^th  November Lynne Regent, CEO of the Anaphylaxis Campaign attended a productive roundtable meeting with the Environment Secretary Michael Gove, the Food Minister David Rutley, specialists, industry stakeholders, academics and clinicians.

Discussion focused on the review of allergen labelling following the death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse who died after eating a baguette from Pret a Manger at Heathrow airport in July 2016. The coroner who presided over the inquest of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse concluded that the current legislation is not adequate and requested a review.

The Anaphylaxis Campaign welcomes the review and hopes the outcomes will make eating out for food allergic consumers as manageable and safe as possible.

What is the legislation for a food business that makes and sells food on the same site?

At present when a food business sells prepacked food for direct sale the same regulations apply as to non-prepacked food under the EU Food Information for Consumers Regulation No. 1169/2011 commonly known as EU FIR 2014, this means food business preparing their products freshly on their premises are exempted from the obligation of labelling them with a list of ingredients including the provision of allergen information. This is because it is expected that the customer is able to speak with the person who made or packed the product to ask about ingredients. All mandatory allergen ingredients information (the 14) should be available and easily accessible for the consumer and this can be communicated through a variety of means to suit the business format of the food business operator.