Tighter allergen labelling laws to extend to catering sector

Caterers from large restaurant chains to fish and chip shops will in future have to provide detailed allergen information for customers under a new EU Regulation, according to the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

Speaking at a conference hosted by charity Coeliac UK last week, the head of the FSA’s allergy branch Sue Hattersley said that the European Commission was expected to publish a draft document on a proposed Food Information Regulation by the end of the year as part of a review of food labelling.

This was “very likely” to include a proposal requiring that cafes, restaurants and other catering outlets provided customers with detailed information about allergens in their products, she predicted. “What is not clear is whether this will be a labelling requirement for menus or point-of-sale materials, or simply that such businesses should be able to provide this information upon request.”

The news was welcomed by Coeliac UK chief executive Sarah Sleet, who said that the lack of information in restaurants and other catering outlets was a major source of frustration for coeliacs, who were far less likely to eat out as a result. She added: “It is time for the catering industry to wake up and realise that there is a substantial niche market that they are missing out on.”

She also welcomed the news that standards body Codex Alimentarius was set to ratify a maximum threshold of 20ppm of gluten below which manufacturers could describe their products as suitable for gluten free diets. However, no decision had yet been taken over how to categorise products containing 20-100ppm, which would still be suitable for the vast majority of coeliacs, she said, These were typically products containing wheat products that had been treated to remove or reduce gluten.

Given that manufacturers now had to list additives containing microscopic amounts of gluten (ie less than 20ppm) in their ingredients declarations, the situation could easily arise whereby products were described on pack as ‘gluten-free’, or ‘suitable for coeliacs’, but still had the words ‘wheat’ on the ingredients list, said British Retail Consortium assistant director for food policy Andrea Martinez-Inchausti. “This could get extremely confusing for consumers.”

While the cost of gluten-free products would come down as the market became more mainstream, many coeliacs had raised concerns about the price of gluten-free products in a recent survey, said Coeliac UK head of diet and health Norma McGough. Research had also suggested that staple gluten-free foods were typically four times as expensive as equivalent products, she claimed. They could also be less nutrient-dense as the corn or rice flour they contained was not typically fortified with the vitamins and minerals that were mandatorily added to the wheat flour they replaced. “More research is needed on the nutritional adequacy of the gluten-free diet,” she said.

Coeliac disease is an auto immune disease caused by intolerance to gluten (a protein complex in wheat, barley, rye and other cereals). If undiagnosed it could cause gastrointestinal problems and long-term damage to the gut wall, which could in turn lead to chronic diseases such as osteoporosis and bowel cancer. Up to one in 100 people potentially had the disease, although less than one in eight were diagnosed, according to Coeliac Uk.