European Union Forum Information provision for allergic consumers – where are we going with food allergen labelling? Food allergy has been estimated to affect around 1–2% of the adult population, and up to 8% of children less than 3 years of age (1) and because there is no proactive treatment all that can currently be offered to individuals suffering from classical IgE-mediated food allergy is to Ôavoid completely all foods containing the offending allergenÕ (2), coupled with emergency management of reactions for those with severe allergies. Such advice is also extended to sufferers of food intolerance conditions such as Coeliac’s disease, for which food avoidance is also the only treatment currently available. Implementing such advice means that food-allergic consumers, together with their families and carers, must adopt a lifestyle of constant vigilance (life-long for many) to ensure that food they buy and eat is free from problematic allergens. This is not easy to achieve in practice and has been made worse by the fact that in many countries legislation has not required com- plete labelling of ingredients contained in processed food- stuffs. As a result accidental consumption of problem foods (sometimes fatal) has resulted from ÔhiddenÕ allergens (3– 5). Provision of good quality food allergen labelling is paramount for allergic consumers, their families and carers, to manage their condition effectively. In response to this need, the EU has funded a networking project, InformAll (http://www.informall.eu.com), with the aim of developing communication strategies for food allergy, promoting the provision of visible, credible sources of information appropriate to different stakeholders. One of the first aspects that the partnership has been considering is the labelling of allergens in foods. What the allergic consumers want As food-allergic consumers rely on food labels to imple- ment the food avoidance they need all the ingredients in a As the current treatment for food allergy involves dietary exclusion of the problem food, information for food-allergic consumers provided on food labels about the nature of allergenic ingredients is important to the management of their condition. The members of an EU-funded networking project, InformAll, focusing on developing strategies for the provision of credible, reliable sources of information for food allergy sufferers, regulators and the food industry, have been considering these matters with respect to food labelling. This paper presents an overview of the genesis of the new EU directive on food labelling, its rele- vance to food-allergic consumers and the problems that might arise if precau- tionary labelling becomes more widespread in response to concerns regarding inadvertent allergen contamination in foods. International efforts to define threshold levels of allergens able to trigger a reaction coupled with validated allergen detection methods are essential if the food industry is to implement effective hazard control procedures and address the problems of cross-contact allergens without devaluing the information provided to consumers on food labels. E. N. C. Mills 1 , E. Valovirta 2 , C. Madsen 3 , S. L. Taylor 4 , S. Vieths 5 , E. Anklam 6 , S. Baumgartner 7 , P. Koch 8 , R. W. R. Crevel 9 , L. Frewer 10 1 Institute of Food Research, Norwich, UK; 2 European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases PatientsÕ Associations, Brussels, Belgium; 3 Danish Food and Veterinary Research, Søborg, Denmark; 4 University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA; 5 Paul Ehrich Institute, Langen, Germany; 6 European Commission, Directorate General Joint Research Centre, Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements, Geel, Belgium; 7 IFA-Tulln, Konrad Lorenzstrasse 20, Tulln, Austria; 8 SQTS-Swiss Quality Testing Services, Dietikon, Switzerland; 9 SEAC, Unilever Colworth, Sharnbrook, UK; 10 Department of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands Key words: allergen; consumers; directive; EU; food; labelling. Dr Clare Mills Institute of Food Research Norwich Research Park Norwich NR4 7UA UK Accepted for publication 26 July 2004 Allergy 2004: 59: 1262–1268 Printed in UK. All rights reserved Copyright Ó Blackwell Munksgaard 2004 ALLERGY DOI: 10.1111/j.1398-9995.2004.00720.x 1262