ALLERGENI: come identificarli - IoBoscoVivo Srl

ALLERGENS: how to identify them

In recent years, interest in issues related to nutrition has grown significantly, and therefore the attention paid to food allergies and intolerances is also increasing, which are increasingly studied with the aim of improving the lives of those who have to live with these disadvantaged situations.

Food intolerance consists of an adverse reaction of the body towards certain foods whose symptoms can arise gradually and/or after a certain period of time, generally causing gastrointestinal, dermatological or respiratory disorders: a real food-related inflammation. Food allergy is much more immediate and involves immunoglobulins.

Food allergens inevitably affect the diet and lives of many people around the world. For this reason, therefore, it is useful to know more about the foods that can cause these problems.

With the aim of improving the quality of life and protecting the health of subjects with food allergies and intolerances, European Regulation 1169/2011 has been applied since 2014, which makes reporting of allergens mandatory even in non-prepackaged foods. In fact, it has become mandatory on food labels to clearly highlight all the allergens present in the product.

The regulation indicates that allergens must appear in the list of ingredients and suggests using a character that is clearly distinct from other ingredients, for example by size, style or background color to ensure that the allergen is clearly visible and easily identifiable (often we find them in bold).

In the European regulation we find in ANNEX II the list of all substances or products that cause allergies or intolerances with the relevant exceptions for each subgroup, and they are:

  1. Cereals containing gluten: wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelled
  2. Shellfish and shellfish products
  3. Eggs and egg products
  4. Fish and fish products
  5. Peanuts and peanut products
  6. Soy and soy products
  7. Milk and milk-based products
  8. Nuts: almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashew nuts, pecans, Brazil nuts, pistachios, macadamia nuts and their products
  9. Celery and celery-based products
  10. Mustard and mustard-based products
  11. Sesame seeds and sesame seed products
  12. Sulfur dioxide and sulphites, only if higher than 10ppm
  13. Lupines and lupine products
  14. Shellfish and shellfish products

Curiosity: When the warning phrase "Contains traces of ..." or "May contain traces of ..." is indicated on the label, it refers to the possible involuntary presence of an allergen, the inclusion of which may occur during production and which may be present in tracks. In reality, this wording is not suitable for guaranteeing consumer safety as EFSA has confirmed the impossibility of establishing a threshold of contamination from allergenic ingredients below which it is possible to exclude the risk of allergic reactions.

It is of fundamental importance to protect the health of the consumer and a clear and understandable label is the perfect solution to ensure that people are always informed about what they are buying and bringing to their table.

IoBoscoVivo products have a transparent and easy to understand label, the allergens contained in our packages are highlighted in bold and easily identifiable by those who purchase our products ( https://ioboscovivo.com/shop/ ).

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