Precautionary labelling of foods for allergen content: are we ready for a global framework?

Table 1 Examples of countries with mandatory disclosure of allergens in pre-packed foods

	Wheat	Other gluten-containing cereals	Egg	Milk	Peanut	Tree nuts	Soy	Fish	Crustacean	Mollusc	Celery	Mustard	Sesame	Lupin	Sulphur dioxide	Other
Argentina [11]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓						✓	✓¹
Australia/ New Zealand [12]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	²			✓		✓
Brazil [13]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓						✓	✓¹
Canada [14]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓		✓
China [15]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
European Union* [16]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Hong Kong [17]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓						✓
Japan [18]	✓	³	✓	✓	✓	³	³	³	✓⁴	³						✓³
Kuwait/Gulf [19]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓				✓
Malaysia [20]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Mexico [21]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓						✓
Singapore [22]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓					✓
South Africa [23]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓
South Korea [24]	✓	⁵	✓	✓	✓		✓	⁵	✓⁴							✓⁵
USA [25]	✓		✓	✓	✓	✓⁶	✓	✓	✓						✓
Codex [10]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓

Table adapted from http://farrp.unl.edu/IRChart with reference to national legislation.
*The 28 constituent member states of the European Union (EU) are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.
¹ Local legislation also requires mandatory disclosure of tartrazine.
² It is unclear whether disclosure of mollusc is required by local legislation.
³ Local legislation requires mandatory disclosure of eggs, milk, wheat, buckwheat, peanuts, shrimp and crab. In addition, disclosure is recommended (but not required) for the following 18 ingredients: abalone, squid, salmon roe, orange, kiwifruit, beef, walnut, salmon, mackerel, soybean, chicken, banana, pork, Matsutake mushroom, peach, yam, apple, and gelatin.
⁴ Legislation specifies prawn/shrimp and crab rather than ‘crustacea’.
⁵ Local legislation requires mandatory disclosure of egg, milk, buckwheat, peanuts, soybeans, wheat, mackerel (but not other finned fish), prawn/shrimp, crab, pork, peaches and tomatoes. There are no allergens for which labelling is optional.
⁶ Tree nuts in USA include a range of native nuts not included, for example, under EU legislation e.g. Beech, Butternut, Chestnut, Coconut, Ginko nut, Hickory nut, Lychee, Shea nut.

ISSN: 1939-4551