UK FSA Seeks More Input on Guidance for Allergen Labeling Rules
The UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) is soliciting industry input on draft technical guidance geared to small and medium sized food businesses to help them meet upcoming European Union (EU) regulations on food allergen labelling for prepacked foods and allergen information for non-prepacked foods.
The draft guidance covers new rules on food allergen labelling and the provision of food allergen information which will apply across the EU, including the UK, as of December 13, 2014. According to the FSA, the guidance aims to support small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) — i.e., food producers, manufacturers, importers, distributors, wholesalers, retailers and caterers — in following these rules.
The Agency launched the consultation on this guidance in May, allowing stakeholders to submit comments from May 15 through June 5. FSA officials said they are considering the comments received during phase one, and will publish a revised version of the draft guidance on July 4. The Agency will accept comments on the revised draft from July 4–24, 2014.
The draft guidance applies to: additives and supplements; allergy and intolerance; dairy products and vegetable oils; fish and shellfish; food law, monitoring and controls; and imports. The FSA said it expects details of the final review and the final guidance itself to be published on Thursday, July 31, 2014.
The original version of the draft technical guidance may be downloaded here (348kb PDF).
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