Company gears up to meet demand for allergen testing kits
and more companies are producing testing kits to meet the demand
from food processors.
The allergen labelling regulations came into force on 25 November. It requires companies to label all pre-packed foods if they contain any of the 12 listed allergenic foods as an ingredient.
UK-based Biotrace International announced yesterday it plans to roll out several new allergen testing kits next year to meet the demand.
"It is general recognised that excessive use of allergen precautionary statements, such as 'may contain', unnecessarily restricts consumers' choices and devalues the impact of the warnings," the company stated. "Because of this, many food processors have now restricted their use and in their place, implemented allergen testing regimes to ensure their ingredient, finished product and equipment are free of allergens."
Earlier this year Biotrace launched the first of two products in the range of planned allergen kits.
One kit detects egg white and egg yolk proteins in foods. The company says many other kits on the market only detect egg white, even though egg yolk has also been shown to cause an allergenic response. Another kit detects both raw and cooked peanut traces in products.
Both kits allow users to chose a protocol that suites their requirements. For example users can chose just to set the test to tell them whether an allergen is present or not. They could also choose to measure the level of allergen present in sample through Biotrace's Tecra Allergen Calculator.
The EU It heralds the mandatory inclusion on food labels of the most common food allergen ingredients and their derivatives: cereals containing gluten, fish, crustaceans, egg, peanut, soybeans, milk and dairy products including lactose, nuts, celery, mustard, sesame seed, and sulphites.
UK food testing laboratory RSSL told FoodNavigator.com, a sister site, that they have seen an increase in demand for more testing from companies.
The Reading-based firm, claims to have analysed "a vast array of different food and beverage matrices", including both cooked and raw ingredients. The company said it has also been "doing a lot of analysis of both environmental swabs and rinse waters" to help companies in their fight against cross contamination.
An estimated four per cent of adults and eight per cent of children in the 380 million EU population suffer from food allergies, according to the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients' Associations.
There is no cure for a food allergy, and vigilance by an allergic individual is the only way to prevent a reaction.
Under previous legislation food makers did not have to declare allergens on the label if they were present in an added ingredient that makes up less than 25 per cent of the final food - for example, pepperoni on pizza.
