Popping Bert, Diaz-Amigo Carmen
FOCOS GbR, Food Consulting... Strategically, Zum Kälterhaus 6b, 63755 Alzenau, Germany.
J AOAC Int. 2018 Jan 1;101(1):2-7. doi: 10.5740/jaoacint.17-0381. Epub 2017 Dec 5.
Food allergens and intolerances have been diagnosed by doctors for decades, but have received heightened attention in the last two decades because diagnosis and awareness have increased. Consequently, regulators in many jurisdictions have addressed this topic by introducing labeling requirements for substances causing allergies and intolerance reactions in affected individuals. Mandatory labeling of food allergens allows persons suffering from these to make informed choices. However, regulations in some geographic areas have resulted in significant problems for manufacturers as well as consumers. This has been mainly due to frequent changes and amendments, and it has been difficult for all stakeholders to follow and understand the status quo of legislation. The present paper describes the development of European directives and regulations for the labeling of food allergens and intolerances to substances like gluten over the past decades and provides an outlook of what can reasonably be expected to change in the coming years. It also identifies existing gaps, like a lack of threshold levels for adventitious contamination and consequently a proliferation of precautionary allergen labeling, which neither benefits the consumer nor the food industry in its current form.
几十年来，医生一直在诊断食物过敏和不耐受情况，但在过去二十年里，由于诊断水平提高和人们的认识增强，这一问题受到了更多关注。因此，许多司法管辖区的监管机构通过对导致过敏和不耐受反应的物质引入标签要求来应对这一话题。对食物过敏原进行强制标签标注能让患有这些疾病的人做出明智的选择。然而，一些地理区域的法规给制造商和消费者都带来了重大问题。这主要是由于法规频繁变更和修订，所有利益相关者都很难跟上并理解立法的现状。本文描述了过去几十年来欧洲关于食物过敏原以及对面筋等物质不耐受情况的标签指令和法规的发展，并对未来几年可能合理预期的变化进行了展望。它还指出了现存的差距，比如缺乏偶然污染的阈值水平，因此预防性过敏原标签泛滥，目前这种形式对消费者和食品行业都没有好处。
