Intertek's Assurance in Action Podcast Network
Intertek's Assurance in Action Podcast Network
Managing Allergen Risks: Innovation and Regulation in a Global Food System
In this first podcast Patrick McNamara, our Global Innovations and Quality Manager,
Food Services, looks at the reasons why allergens remain one of the Food industry’s
major issues as it faces unprecedented pressure to feed up to 10 billion people.
Patrick introduces how replacement ingredients that meet consumer’s demands for healthier products are introducing new allergen risks, as well as the ever-changing
global and local regulatory environment.
Tune in now!
Speakers:
- Patrick McNamara- Global Innovations and Quality Manager, Intertek Food Services
- Alan Cadman- Business Development Manager, Intertek Food Services
Download our complimentary ebook to learn what a food allergen is, how to test for allergens in food, and the UK and EU Regulations for allergen labelling. Download here!
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Welcome to our new podcast series all about allergens. Our first podcast will give us a basic insight into allergens and introduce some key topics that will be explained in more detail over the podcast series. The first podcast is brought to you by our global innovations and quality manager Patrick McNamara. and our UK Food Business Development Manager, Alan Cadman. Over to you, Alan and Patrick.
Alan Cadman:Thanks, Zoe, and welcome to everyone listening to this podcast. It's Allergy Week in the UK at the time of recording. So, Patrick, I hope you've recovered from our three days at the Food and Drink Expo at the start of the month. I'm aware that allergens are still a key risk area, but that didn't come out at the Food and Drink Exhibition. Why do you think that was?
Patrick McNamara:Well, firstly, I think it's probably a good moment, Alan, to say thank you to anybody who Thank you very much. Firstly, you need to look at the type of event that the Food and Drink Expo is. The focus is food innovation, new products, everything that's new, shopping, innovative, it's healthy, it's focused on the positive aspects of food. And I think that's probably one of the reasons why the risk management piece is probably not as evident. If it was an event run by an enforcement body or a company who's involved in risk management like ourselves, you'd probably have seen the allergens, contaminants thing come up a lot more often. So I think it's the type of event is But also, we shouldn't conflate something that wasn't a primary concern with something that isn't a concern at all. The fact that people didn't mention it at this particular event doesn't mean that it's not something that concerns them. It's still one of the major issues in the food industry. And actually, while we're talking about the expo, Anybody who attended one of the sessions over those three days will have found that the most poignant and pertinent session was actually on allergen management. And it was a session hosted by Ian Ferris from Birmingham University. And part of the panel was Jatin Patel from FGS Ingredients. People who are in the industry will understand FGS were at the centre of an issue back in October of last year where they found peanut residue in their mustard ingredient and Jatin quite personally spoke about what that incident cost him and his company. And I don't think anybody who ever attended that session and has an interest in allergens control will ever forget it. If you weren't there and haven't seen it, I would urge you to watch it. It's available on YouTube. If you can't find it, drop me a line and I will send you the link because it's genuinely worth watching. To your question, Al, I think allergens are still an issue. I just don't think a fun-loving, forward-thinking food and drink expo was ever going to be the primary place where people would use that as a question for us, to be honest.
Alan Cadman:Thank you for that, Patrick. So there are clearly lots of pressures on the food industry. Do you think that affects the way they look at allergens?
Patrick McNamara:Oh, there's no doubt about it. I think... We're in an unprecedented age of pressure on the food industry. We're moving towards an era where we have to feed up to 10 billion people with crops that are failing, with climate change pressures. We have cost of living pressures. People are looking for healthier products, but at a price they can afford. And I think all of these things are driving differences in risk assessments for allergens. I think if you look at the cost pressures, people are looking for cheaper ingredients, replacement ingredients, supply chains that lower the cost base. And I can understand that, but it's not without risk. Every new supplier you take up, you have to consider where are they based? Are the local controls as strict? Are they accredited to the same standard? Do they have the same level of traceability? And actually, what type of ingredients are you swapping in your reformulation? The same is true of healthier products. There are health initiatives now in every major jurisdiction. And as that takes place and as that progresses, people are looking for healthier alternatives. They're looking for clean labels and lower fat, salt and sugar products. But again, the replacement ingredients, where are the allergenic risks? And of course, we've got our old food fraud as well. Food fraud has been around for millennia and it doesn't change, but it always sees a rise during a time of economic downturn. And I think the cost pressures are a driver for food fraud. So again, when you don't know how your products or your ingredients have been tampered with, that in itself is a risk of allergen cross-contact. Then there are regulatory challenges, as if that wasn't enough, as if cost, climate change, a healthier public and fraudsters wasn't enough to contend with. There's also global allergen changes. The outcome of the recent Codex review of allergens has actually changed the thresholds that they advise people to use as action levels. And that has changed the vital program, which a lot of companies use for looking at precautionary allergen labeling as well. And then to compound that, there are individual market regulations, countries or trading blocks like the US or the EU, China or the Mercosur countries, where they're now looking at allergens in a different way. There are different labeling requirements and different controls that you have to think about. So what you need to think about is where am I sourcing my ingredients from? What are the allergen rules in the market of origin? But what are the allergen rules in all the different countries that I'm selling to? What labeling reviews do I have to carry out? What specifications do I need to check? You know, there are some things that you can control a lot better. Your site controls you can control. but you can't always control supplier behaviour. So do you need audits, inspections? Do you need some kind of accreditation to look at? So all these things are driving a lot of pressures on the food industry in a way that I don't think we've actually seen before.
Alan Cadman:Interesting, Patrick. So you've touched on new suppliers as we look to import ingredients for new markets, but we're also looking to export ingredients. to new markets as well. Does that bring new risks?
Patrick McNamara:I think when you're exporting to a new market, there's first a lot of government trade compliance work that you need to do to make sure your product is compliant. You don't need to be able to manage the chain of custody of your product from where you're producing into the market to the point at which you're selling to the consumer. So your product labels, all that B2C information that the consumer has to have by law. We live in an age, of course, where you can buy a lot of things online. And There are actually a lot of very strict rules on what you can sell online and the information you have to provide. And unfortunately, those aren't always adhered to. But it's wise to know what they are when you're trying to sell in an online marketplace as well. We live in a very modern world with modern risks. And then we have the very old world school of food fraud and crime. So all of these things combine to make allergen risk control a very complex activity, I think.
Alan Cadman:Thanks for that, Patrick. So we are going to look at most of these areas as we focus. Some podcasts look at specific areas of allergen risk. The next podcast will be available by the end of May. In the meantime, please download our updated Allergens e-book, which includes the new vital guidelines. And please, if you get an opportunity, complete our Allergens survey. By completing the survey, you will help inform the future podcast. Is there anything you want to add, Patrick?
Patrick McNamara:I just think, Alan, I'm very excited about the series that we're embarking on now. I think we need to remember. 40% of global food product recalls and a similar number in the UK actually are caused by mislabelling of allergens or failure to declare allergens and that number is not dropping. So I think if you have an interest in this or if it's a risk to you, you're making complex products or importing from certain parts of the world, I absolutely urge you to complete our survey because that survey will inform the things that we talk about, the experts that we engage with, and it will inform the content that we choose to put in our series. So anybody listening, you can directly inform the content that you want to hear. So please sign up and take our survey.
Alan Cadman:Fantastic. Thank you very much for your expert opinion, Patrick, and thank you everyone for listening.