EATING AND THE LAW

At the moment, the law forces companies to state clearly on pre-packed goods if they include any of the 14 most common food allergens.

EU regulation comes into force in the UK in December 2014 demanding that places that serve food/drink give information for the 14 specified food allergens for non pre-packed foods (Food Standards Agency 2014).

Businesses must be able to inform customers if these allergens are in the foods/drinks they are serving, everything from biscuits to beef Wellington. At the very least there must be a sign up or a note on the menu encouraging people to flag up dietary requirements with regards to food allergens.

In addition, companies will no longer be able to use ‘allergy boxes’ on labels to say what allergens a product contains. Instead the 14 allergens must be highlighted in some way (e.g. in bold) in the ingredient list (Food Standards Agency 2014).