A recent meeting report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)/World Health Organization (WHO) Joint Expert Consultation on Risk Assessment of Food Allergens (JECRA) proposes a process to guide the development and evaluation of allergen derivative exemptions.
The meeting summarized in the report is the fourth in a series of JECRA meetings that were convened in response to a request for scientific advice from the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH) to help update and develop its allergen management code of practice and guidance on precautionary allergen labeling (PAL). This fourth meeting specifically sought to evaluate whether certain foods and ingredients—like highly refined ingredients—that are derived from the list of foods known to cause hypersensitivity can be exempted from mandatory declaration.