The latest FSA Incident Prevention Update highlights that undeclared allergens continue to be a recurring food safety issue, with incidents involving milk, wheat/gluten, egg, mustard, barley, soya, sulphites, celery, cashew, peanut, sesame, nuts and crustaceans.
Of particular concern were products containing multiple undeclared allergens, alongside an anaphylaxis incident associated with restaurant dishes where sesame and nut allergens were cited.
Spices, seasoning mixes and imported products featured repeatedly, including celery in a spice mix and incorrectly labelled peanut in a thyme spice blend. This reinforces the importance of robust supplier approval, up-to-date specifications and effective change controls.
The FSA’s prevention advice also emphasises that allergen controls need to be verified in practice. Businesses should review allergen risks whenever suppliers, recipes or processes change and ensure segregation, cleaning and other controls remain effective.
Near misses and incidents should also be investigated beyond the immediate error. Root cause analysis should consider training, systems, suppliers and management controls, with lessons used to strengthen procedures.
The key message: your allergen matrix is only as reliable as the specifications, controls and procedures behind it.
Read the full message from the FSA Link
Allergens Key issues
Undeclared milk was recorded in non-dairy vegetable cream, doughnuts, chocolate sweets, crisp type snack, fortified drink sachets and pounded yam. Milk also featured with wheat in sour cream and dill crisps and egg in doughnuts.
Undeclared wheat or gluten was found in soybean snacks, white orzo, salsa and a brownie. Other incidents involved mustard and barley in salsa, soy in chocolate cake and separately in chickpea penne; sulphites in cider vinegar, celery in Dutch spice mix, cashew in German pistachio ice cream, peanut in Turkish za’atar and Greek pistachio cream, and crustaceans in smoked ground crayfish.
Multiple allergen issues were recorded across imported powders, spices and other foods, and an anaphylaxis incident associated with restaurant dishes cited sesame and nut allergens.
Incidents with multiple-allergens identified included wheat/gluten, egg, milk, soya and sesame in vegan mixed buns from Malaysia, pickled mustard greens and seasoning or soup powders from Thailand, and sliced konjac from China, wheat and egg in soybean snacks from China, milk and egg in UK branded doughnuts, milk and soya in UK chocolate sweets, and, milk and wheat in sour cream and dill crisps from Romania.
