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Do you have an allergen specification document? Or controls to prevent the cross-contamination of allergens on your site? Failure to detect allergens could bring your business to its knees.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a food manufacturer, food supplier or food retailer - you need a foolproof method for detecting and labelling allergens. The consequences of undeclared allergens making it to the end-consumer are far-reaching and could be devastating.
Recently we have written about how to create an allergen specification document. We have also explained how to label allergens on your site to avoid cross-contamination. But if you are in any doubt about the need to place strict controls on the movement of allergens on your site, this is the article you need.
1. End-consumer health risks
News flash: some people are allergic to certain foods (or proteins, to be more specific). That’s why we have allergen labelling on food packaging: to prevent consumers from inadvertently eating food that could harm them. Makes sense, doesn’t it?
But what if ingredients become contaminated with additional allergens while on your site? A well-meaning consumer could eat something thinking it to be safe for them, only to suffer an adverse reaction from an allergen that wasn’t labelled on the food packaging.
That could cause anything from a mildly discomforting rash to anaphylaxis and even death. It might sound extreme. But accurate detection and labelling of allergens really can be a matter of life or death.
2. Loss of reputation with customers
In the age of social media, food scare stories travel at warp speed - often before the facts of the matter have even been established. Rest assured that if one of your products has caused a health scare, it’s not just the person affected who will think a lot less of your brand name. No such thing as bad publicity? Your bottom line will likely tell a different story.
3. Loss of reputation with buyers
If your buyers suspect you are putting their end-customers at risk by contaminating food with undeclared allergens, don’t expect them to hang around. Especially if they see allergen testing and labelling as your responsibility.
4. Loss of reputation with suppliers
Are you buying ingredients from external suppliers? The best food suppliers take food provenance seriously and are scrupulous with their allergen labelling. That doesn’t give you carte blanche to ignore allergen contamination controls. If food is contaminated at your site and it causes a scare with the end-consumer, it could sully the reputation of your suppliers as well as your own. That may deter the top suppliers from doing business with you.
5. Legal action
Defending a legal case is stressful, expensive and incredibly disruptive. But that’s what you will have to do if one of your suppliers or buyers takes action based on a loss of revenue due to a mistake you have made. In the event of an end-consumer becoming ill or dying, you could find yourself facing a criminal investigation.
6. Product recalls
If one of your buyers detects a problem with your ingredients, or batch testing reveals allergen contamination, you could be left responsible for the cost of expansive, expensive product recalls. That could have a significant impact on your bottom line.
7. External audits
There aren’t many food businesses out there that actively look forward to external audits. At best they can be disruptive, at worst they can force you to completely rethink the way you do business. But if you are responsible for a major contamination scare or the ill health of end-consumers, you can be fairly certain that an external audit or investigation will shortly follow.
7 simple tips for successful food safety audits
8. Loss of staff morale
Think about the message you are sending to your staff. When you are seen to let your standards slip on allergens, your staff may think a similarly slapdash approach is excusable with things like hygiene and cleaning. Before long you have a disengaged workforce that isn’t working to maintain the integrity of your food products. Laziness becomes part of the culture. And culture can be a hard thing to alter.
Over to you...
Tracking allergens doesn’t have to be time-consuming or taxing. Putting the necessary controls in place - both on your site and with your suppliers - is simple. And it will protect your business from the damaging consequences related to the loss of reputation, the loss of contracts and the loss of revenue. Why take the risk?
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