Navigating Allergen Management: What Food Businesses Need to Know About the Revised Standard

What Must be Declared

The Food Standards Code now requires food and ingredients to be declared using certain required names, which are listed in Table 1 below. The change also means individual tree nuts, molluscs, and individual cereals must all be declared separately, adhering to allergen management guidelines to ensure the safety of consumers with allergies or intolerances.

Foods and ingredients to be declared (using these names)

• wheat

• fish

• crustacean

• mollusc

• egg

• milk

• lupin

• peanut

• soy, soya, soybean

• sesame

• almond

• Brazil nut

• cashew

• hazelnut

• macadamia

• pecan

• pistachio

• pine nut

• walnut

• barley*

• oats*

• rye*

• sulphites**

• Barley, oats and rye must be declared if they contain gluten

Sulphites must be declared when added in amounts equal to or more than 10 milligrams per kilogram of food.

Food service retailers such as cafés, restaurants and pubs, are legally required to provide information on allergens that may be present in food if requested by a customer.

This includes providing allergen information for packaged or unpackaged food made and sold on the premises.

If the food requires a label, the declaration must be:

• On the label

If the food does not require a label, the declaration must be:

• On display next to the food, or

• Provided to a customer on request

Important strategies that businesses can use to manage allergy risks include:

• Implement an effective allergen management plan

• Train front-of-house and back-of-house staff in food allergen risks, management and communication

• Use a system to provide clear and accurate allergen information

• Manage the unintentional presence of food allergens

Resources, including templates that you can use to create recipes, chart allergens and safely substitute ingredients are available on the All about Allergens resource hub - external site.

Visit Allergies and intolerances for more information.

https://dev.cft.edu.au/food-safety/