1-2% of adults and 5-8% of children have food allergies and many more have intolerances. Can you be sure that you are allergy aware when preparing food in your business?
In recent years, there have been many high profile cases relating to allergens in food. This has resulted in changes to food labelling requirements (Such as Natasha’s Law).
Businesses have a duty to provide accurate information on ingredients contained in food, to help keep customers safe.
Introducing the Allergens Direct Audit
Allergens Direct can help your businesses with practical procedures and policies to prevent:
- providing misinformation
- cross contamination
- fatal incidents
This is achieved by a visit from one of our expert Trading Standards officers, who will visit your premises and offer friendly, practical advice on the best practice for managing allergens.
What can I expect during the visit?
An Allergen Direct inspection includes:
- An audit carried out at your premises by a specialist officer. The officer will look at:
- menus
- ingredients
- recipes
- eating areas
- kitchens
- storage areas
- staff training
- all other aspects where there is potential for allergens to be present in food
What happens after the visit?
Following the visit, we will provide:
- an audit report, detailing bespoke advice and best practice solutions you may need to implement
- Promotion of your business as certified as allergy aware and a sticker to display at your premises. (Providing you put our recommendations in place).
This will provide your customers with the confidence that you and your business are aware of allergens.
How much will it cost?
Please visit our prices page where you can find prices for all of our services, including Allergens Direct.
How to purchase
If you would like to book an Allergens Direct visit or have any questions, please contact our friendly hub team on:
- email businessadvice@cornwall.gov.uk
- telephone 0300 1234 212 (option 4)
Alternatively you can follow the button below to use our online contact form:
Information on Allergen legislation
Since October 2021 the law relating to labelling of food that is pre packed for direct sale has changed. There is now a requirement to fully label products with ingredients including allergens.
This can include:
- Products that are made, packed and sold on your premises
- Prepacked products sold on your own market stall
- Products you buy in, repackage and sell on your premises
- Hot food that is packaged or wrapped before the customer orders it and is sold on your premises.
If you sell prepacked food directly to consumers from a shop, mobile unit or market stall, you will need to know how to comply.
If you’re not sure if the new rules apply to, you can use this decision tool to help.
Kellaway's Allergens Case Study
Allergen bite sized guide
We offer a bite sized guide to help caterers, retailers and manufacturers through the web of legislation relating to food production
Find out more about our allergen guide
Food Allergy Awareness Training Course
Through our partnership with the Virtual College we offer online allergy awareness training.
In the online training, you will learn:
- what food allergy and intolerance are
- what information should be on food labels
- how to recognise an allergic reaction
For more information and to sign up to the allergy awareness course:
