Allergen labelling - is an amendment required?

Across Europe 13 major allergens and sulphites have to be declared on pre-packed foods when used as deliberate ingredients. Thus identification and avoidance of individual triggers have become easier for many food-allergic persons. The regulations removed the so-called '25% rule' and limited the use of collective names in a list of ingredients. Persons, who are allergic against foods not required to be labelled, only partially benefit from the new regulations. Due to the lack of regulations concerning the declaration of possible allergen cross-contamination, many manufacturers provide trace warnings voluntarily in order to indicate the potential presence of unintentional amounts of certain allergens in pre-packed food. In consequence, the choice of pre-packed foods is now even more limited for many allergic persons than with previous regulations. By all means further amendments are required in view of the presence of unintentional ingredients (cross-contaminations) and for non pre-packed foods. A comprehensive nutritional education and therapy is still absolutely essential for food allergic persons in order to establish effective coping strategies in every day life.