Figure 4

Can regulation improve precautionary advisory labelling? Legislation may be required to introduce uniformity amongst manufacturers in conducting a risk assessment for allergen content and then communicating that information to the allergic consumer. However, regulation has its weaknesses and needs to be balanced against the ability of a system to adapt to new technologies (e.g. in allergen analysis) and clinical data (e.g. updated allergen thresholds). Once established, ongoing improvements to PAL may be best achieved through a less rigid legislative process (depicted by the dotted line in the figure).