Whether food allergy prevalence is increasing or not, food allergy awareness has increased, with impacts on the quality of life for children, their parents, and their immediate caregivers. In the United States, the
Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act enacted August 2004, effective January 1, 2006, causes people to be reminded of allergy problems every time they handle a food package, and restaurants have added allergen warnings to menus. School systems have protocols about what foods can be brought into the school. Despite all these precautions, people with serious allergies are aware that accidental exposure can easily occur at other peoples' houses, at school or in restaurants.
Regulation of labeling In response to the risk that certain foods pose to those with food allergies, some countries have responded by instituting labeling laws that require food products to inform consumers if their products contain major allergens or byproducts of major allergens among the ingredients intentionally added to foods.
Ingredients intentionally added FALCPA requires companies to disclose on the label whether a packaged food product contains any of these eight major food allergens, added intentionally: cow's milk, peanuts, eggs, shellfish, fish, tree nuts, soy, and wheat. The European Union requires listing for those eight major allergens plus molluscs, celery, mustard, lupin, sesame, and sulfites. Under this guidance,
coconut,
cola (kola) nut, beech nut, butternut,
chestnut,
chinquapin,
ginkgo nut,
hickory nut, palm nut,
pili nut, and shea nut no longer require a "Contains: tree nuts" statement. However,
almond, black walnut,
Brazil nut, California walnut,
cashew,
hazelnut, heartnut (Japanese walnut),
macadamia nut,
pecan,
pine nut,
pistachio, and English and Persian walnut must still be labeled by FALCPA standards. FALCPA applies to packaged foods regulated by the
FDA, which does not include poultry, most meats, certain egg products, and most alcoholic beverages. The EU Food Information for Consumers Regulation 1169/2011 – requires food businesses to provide allergy information on food sold unpackaged, for example, in catering outlets, deli counters, bakeries and sandwich bars.
Trace amounts as a result of cross-contamination The value of allergen labeling other than for intentional ingredients is controversial. This concerns labeling for ingredients present unintentionally as a consequence of cross-contact or cross-contamination at any point along the food chain (during raw material transportation, storage or handling, due to shared equipment for processing and packaging, etc.). Experts in this field propose that if allergen labeling is to be useful to consumers, and healthcare professionals who advise and treat those consumers, ideally there should be agreement on which foods require labeling, threshold quantities below which labeling may be of no purpose, and validation of allergen detection methods to test and potentially recall foods that were deliberately or inadvertently contaminated. Labeling regulations have been modified to provide for mandatory labeling of ingredients plus voluntary labeling, termed precautionary allergen labeling (PAL), also known as “may contain” statements, for possible, inadvertent, trace amount, cross-contamination during production. PAL labeling can be confusing to consumers, especially as there can be many variations on the wording of the warning. PAL is regulated only in Switzerland, Japan, Argentina, and South Africa. Argentina decided to prohibit precautionary allergen labeling in 2010, and instead puts the onus on the manufacturer to control the manufacturing process and label only those allergenic ingredients known to be in the products. South Africa does not permit the use of PAL, except when manufacturers demonstrate the potential presence of allergen due to cross-contamination through a documented risk assessment and despite adherence to Good Manufacturing Practice. VITAL 2.0 was developed by the Allergen Bureau, a food industry sponsored, non-government organization. The European Union has initiated a process to create labeling regulations for unintentional contamination, but is not expected to publish such before 2024. In Brazil, since April 2016, the declaration of the possibility of cross-contamination is mandatory when the product does not intentionally add any allergenic food or its derivatives, but the Good Manufacturing Practices and allergen control measures adopted are not sufficient to prevent the presence of accidental trace amounts. These allergens include wheat, rye, barley, oats and their hybrids, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybean, milk of all species of mammalians,
almonds,
hazelnuts,
cashew nuts,
Brazil nuts,
macadamia nuts,
walnuts,
pecan nuts,
pistachios,
pine nuts, and
chestnuts. ==Society and culture==