Tuesday 14 January 2014

New food allergen laws are due to kick in later this year

You read some things on line and you think "yyyeeeehhhhh, and about bl**dy time too." Well I can across one such article the other day and it really has made my year yes I know it's only the middle of January. 

Through reading this article I have come across a woman called Liz who is helping to make this happen. I always knew it would. Twenty years ago vegetarians were considered weird folk and were looked at strangely if they wanted a vegetarian meal. Now they are accepted for being the normal people that they are and every restaurant/cafe/chip shop/supermarket caters for them.

I have always believed that time my great-grandchildren start eating out in such places that people with food allergies and intolerances will be looked at as being normal and accepted in the same way.

Vegetarianism is a lifestyle choice, food allergies are not. This country has a long way to go in accepting families like ours as being normal. But this year marks a huge step forward in that acceptance.

Liz runs Allergy awareness Kitchen and I will let her tell you about what she does.




What we want to achieve?
Allergy Aware Kitchen began because of Liz Allan’s passion for the need to improve Food Allergy Awareness in the food service industry.
A new allergen law is due to be introduced 13th December 2014 which means that all food service companies will have to provide information on the EU Top 14 allergens for their customers relating to any dish they cook or product they serve to their customers.
This means that they need to educate all their staff regarding food allergies and intolerances and not just be seen to be paying lip service to the law.
Staff need to know what the differences are between Food Allergy, Food Intolerance, Anaphylaxis and Coeliac Disease, how to prepare allergy friendly dishes, avoidance of cross-contamination and how to give their allergic customer a safe dining experience every time.
Main Services
To provide half day certified Food Allergy Awareness Training to the Food Service Industry.


Additional Services

  • Certification of food service organisations and staff following training and company audit
  • Auditing of supply chain to ensure full traceability of FreeFrom products being supplied to restaurants etc.
  • Education in methods of best practice
  • Support and guidance with legislative issues 
  • Menu development and optimisation to incorporate FreeFrom products
  • On-going support, including industry updates, marketing, telephone and email support etc


Training:
This consists of a half-day training workshop to be presented on or off-site.
Delegates will be taught about best practice methodology; how to deal with allergic guests, how to control cross contamination, how the FIR Regs will affect them and how to adhere to them.


So there you have it, now I know it has a long way to go and it will take time to build up the confidence of families like ours to truly believe they are implementing the new rules and regulations and providing a safe eating environment for us but its great news.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks Elaine, that's a really good article and I appreciate you spreading the word so much I can't tell you! Liz x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Will be a big step forward, my daughter has an egg allergy and often the staff have no training or knowledge of food ingredients. Thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete

Nice to see you stopping by. Thank you for your comment and I hope you stop by again.