The practice and perception of precautionary allergen labelling by the Australasian food manufacturing industry

Abstract

Background: The precautionary allergen labelling (PAL) and Voluntary Incidental Trace Allergen Labelling (VITAL®) tools were designed by industry to assist consumers with selecting safe foods for consumption. However, a sizeable proportion of food products bear no label, and it is unclear whether these products are free from allergens and therefore safe to consume or have simply not undergone a risk assessment and therefore remain unlabelled for that reason. Objective: To assess the prevalence of unlabelled products that have undergone a risk assessment process and to examine the factors influencing industry's uptake of the VITAL® process. Methods: A web-based questionnaire was distributed t..