A few days ago there was an article published by The Daily Mail on the
new European legislation in respect of providing foods with potential
allergens. http://www.dailymail.co.uk Fundamentally the law is
changing in December this year and makes it an offence not to declare any one
of the 14 allergens listed below in food products:
Celery, Cereals containing gluten, Crustaceans, Eggs, Fish, Lupin, Milk, Molluscs, Mustard, Peanuts, Sesame, Soy beans, Sulphur dioxide at levels above 10mg/kg, or 10
mg/litre, expressed as SO2, Tree nuts (such as walnut, hazelnut, almond,
etc.).
As anti-European legislations go, the article is quite vociferous in its
approach with its opening line on the legislation being…..
“Restaurants,
cafés and schools are being forced by the EU to identify and list 14 potential
allergens in their food.”
I love the word “forced” here! Anyone would think that the experts from
DEFRA (The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs) and the FSA
(Food Standards Agency) haven’t had a say in this legislation, which has been drafted,
re-drafted, consulted on and honed for the last few years. It’s not the EU putting a stamp on us at all,
it’s about the European Community at large agreeing on some food industry
standards to protect the consumers (and the businesses) that operate in the
Union.
The premise of the law is that any food item sold, or provided at
functions etc., has to be labelled (whether verbal or written) if it contains
one of the allergens and that allergen needs to be communicated to the
consumer. I am very surprised that a
‘renowned cook and TV Food expert’ would think this a bad thing. Surely any cook of any worth at all would be
totally up to speed with what ingredients go in the food they cook? Have we learnt nothing from the recent horse
meat scandal?
As it happens I disagree that the small businesses will suffer. Small businesses that buy in a lot of
pre-prepared food will be ok as all goods supplied by manufacturers have to be
labelled accordingly under the legislation anyway, so approaching the suppliers
is not an issue. Those small businesses
that cook from scratch using fresh ingredients will also be fine, as they will
know all the ingredients that go into each dish. Yes it’s a bit of work initially writing out
all the ingredients and highlighting those allergens, but even dishes of the
day are repeated again and again. I‘m
also not really quite sure how listing an ingredient will 'kill innovation'. I can’t imagine making a decision on cooking
a dish being dependent on whether I have to declare it contains celery or not.
I do take the point that massive fast food chains will have it easier as
they have standard food items and whole departments dedicated to writing out
menus and ingredients lists. They still
also have to go through the process of raw ingredient traceability and ingredients
listing and changing all labels and information sheets accordingly, but they
have known about this change for quite a while now.
It is also quite misleading that the allergens need to be shown on the
menus. It has to either be made available
verbally or be visible in writing, not necessarily on the menus.
According to the article the chairman of the Restaurant Association, the
7th Earl of Bradford, stated:
‘What
people who have allergies need to do is to alert the staff when they visit a
restaurant. If the staff are trained properly, they will then be able to
explain which dishes they will have a problem with,’ he said.
This is very true; however this is where the legislation falls down in
my opinion anyway. There are two sides
to this.
The first is that I’m not sure he understands what it is like to have an
allergy or food intolerance. I am a
coeliac and thus cannot eat any foods containing gluten. I hate ….and can I just emphasise HATE a
little bit more…. going to eat in a restaurant and having to have the
conversation about what food I can and cannot eat, the waiter/waitress then
goes to have a chat with chef, then comes back to tell me what I can and can’t
eat if they remove this that and the other from the meal etc. etc. etc. Meanwhile my fellow diners are all a bit
bored of having to discuss my diet yet again.
Then it doesn’t stop there. The
meals come out and I look suspiciously at the food handed to me (no-one
mentioned the coleslaw…..is the coleslaw gluten free). Then we have the whole
conversation again with the waiter/waitress. He/she then goes away and checks
again. Meanwhile everyone else’s food is
getting cold. I ask them to start. I’m still waiting for confirmation and it’s
either “no it’s fine” or, “oh we’re really sorry you can’t eat that bit”. My food is now cold. Everyone else has finished and I’m chewing my
way through mine…… ! This is a normal regular dilemma.
Does he have any idea how liberating it is to go to one of the,
generally fast food, restaurants and order either straight off the special menu
or specially labelled dish. I can read
what I fancy in my own time without numerous conversations with the staff. I don’t feel embarrassed about being
different and I can just enjoy eating out, because let’s face it, it’s supposed
to be pleasurable.
The second issue (and this will always be true) is the contamination
issue. It saddens me greatly that some
companies go to great lengths to provide a gluten free meal and then fall over
in the preparation, cooking, plating and serving of it. It’s not enough to know what is in the food,
it is also how it’s prepared that is significant and the legislation does not
take this into account at all.
There is a dire need for compulsory training of all staff on allergens. There is so much blind ignorance as to the
impact of consuming an allergenic foodstuff.
Phrases like “estimated 21 million
Britons who claim to have food
allergies” further add to the perception that we are all just fussy eaters
and that a little bit won’t hurt us.
A further curveball is just around the corner. The gluten free labelling legislation is
being amended yet again in 2016….more on that to come I think!
