Food Allergen Control

Course details

The traditional concept of dividing all food hazards into three groups; biological, chemical or physical is in need of revision as a fourth category, Allergens is becoming more of a concern to food retailers. Section 5.3 of BRC – Issue 7 outlines controls for management of allergens and includes it as a Fundamental. Failure to comply with a Fundamental as defined by BRC “will have serious repercussions on the integrity or safety of the product supplied”. Mislabelling of allergens, accounts for approximately half of all food recalls.

Food allergens and pathogenic organisms have the same potential consequence, they can both kill. The policy adopted by many Food Business Operators over the past ten years has been to develop and implement control measures for pathogenic organisms i.e. CCPs, yet this may not be an appropriate means for controlling allergens. To fully integrate allergen control measures into your food safety management system, all food business operators need to understand the fourteen allergens that must be labelled, as defined in legislation, if present in food products.

This training course is designed to take delegates through the allergens as defined in Regulation 1169/2011 to gain a greater understanding and to look at the existing and new control measures that may need to be implemented.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this training course, delegates should be able to:

• Understand European allergen legislation
• Understand the severity associated with each allergen
• Ensure compliance with labelling requirements for allergenic foodstuffs (1169/2011 – FIR)
• Undertake an allergen risk assessment
• Design plant/kitchen layout to meet allergen management requirements
• Undertake cleaning and validation studies
• Implement an allergen management programme

Course Programme

• Course Introduction
• Legislation – Regulation 1169/2011 (Annex II)
• Food allergies and intolerance
• Allergen risk assessment process
• Supply Chain Operatives / Manufacturing
• Allergen risk communications
• Cleaning & Validation
• Allergen labelling
• Ten-point allergen improvement plan