Industry struggles to find the words for allergic consumers

Manufacturers want the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to consider introducing graded risk allergy warnings to clear up confusion surrounding catch-all phrases such as "may contain"

They have also called for clearer guidelines on when allergy warnings should be used.

"The issue is not what should be on the label but rather should a statement be on there in the first place?" said Richard Wood, assistant director for food policy at the British Retail Consortium.

Wood is part of a new FSA working group developing guidance to minimise unnecessary labelling by 2006. Part of its remit is to consider graded allergen warnings, such as "produced on a shared line" or "produced in a shared plant", which could help severely allergic consumers make choices based on risk of adventitious contamination.

With allergy on the increase, research shows at-risk shoppers overlook 10% of "may contain" labels, while many more shun products they could safely eat.

Next month, the allergy labelling directive will make it compulsory to state in a product's ingredients list any of 13 common allergens used, but it does not cover adventitious contamination.

Hazel Gowland, an allergy sufferer and consultant on the FSA working group, pointed out that a product sharing a line on which there was full wet cleaning may be at less risk of contamination than one made on some shared dry sites. In a bakery, for example, potentially allergic dust particles travel widely.

The group said that it was helping to assess potential field, transport and supply chain contamination risks for manufacturers.

Gowland warned that over-labelling could dilute the impact of allergy warnings. The group hopes to report by January.