We’ve seen an increase in food allergies in Australia over the past few years, which has had – and continues to have – a major impact on foodservice in Health and Aged Care and other establishments as they work to accommodate their food-allergic guests. As this increase in food allergies continues, we need to see an increase in food allergy training as well. This is happening, slowly. Recently, more allergy training courses and certifications have been developed, and regulations for training and notifications have been created. But more needs to be done to educate and train foodservice employees around safely accommodating food-allergic nursing home residents, hospital patients and hospitality patrons in general.
My personal viewpoint is that many of the ”ready to heat & eat” meals provided from our manufacturers, wholesalers an our supermarkets are not clear on the actual content. Many of these products have shelf life stabilizers and flavour enhancers, colouring agents, bleaching agents. Many commercially processed foods contain multiple food-additives, most food additives are chemicals that are foreign to our body and are added to our food for commercial reasons and generally have no nutritional value, and worse yet may replace nutrients in natural food.
You almost need to be a biochemist to understand food labels of today, and that is if the print is readable, so how do ensure what is in the product?
We should be cooking from scratch and we should know where our food is coming from (and locally as possible to minimise harm to the environment – Food Miles).
I am happy to see that more and more nursing homes are cooking from scratch, however this will come with an increased cost, but our elderly deserve that, Don’t They?
It would be great if FSANZ could provide some insightful information in regard to to the shelf and flavour enhancers that is easily understood for the people responsible for food at all levels.
_________________________________________________________________________________
4.1 million Australians (19.6% of the population) had at least one allergic disease;
•The highest prevalence of allergies is in the working age population, with 78% of people with allergies aged 15 to 64 years;
•There are 7.2 million cases of allergy (i.e. an average of 1.74 simultaneous allergies per person).
The “Big 8” allergens (milk, eggs, soy, wheat, fish, shellfish, peanuts and tree nuts) account for 90% of Australians’ food allergies, though there are many other foods that people may be allergic to, including mushrooms, mustard, sesame, beef and even spices – and some people have multiple food allergies that need to be accommodated. Along with concerns about proper procedures for food allergens, we must also protect customers with celiac disease, food intolerances and sensitivities.
Many food allergies in children are not severe, and will disappear with time. The most common triggers of allergic reactions in childhood are egg, peanuts, tree nuts and cow’s milk. Fish and shellfish allergy are most common in adulthood. Other less common but still major food allergies in Australia include sesame, soy and wheat. Peanut, tree nut, sesame and seafood allergies are usually life-long. Children often outgrow cow’s milk, egg, soy and wheat allergy at some point throughout childhood but a minority of people have these allergies into adulthood.
Some food allergies can be severe, causing life threatening reactions known as anaphylaxis. Allergic reactions are common in children, with hospitals reporting an increase in severe reactions being treated in emergency departments. Deaths from food allergy are rare. There are more fatal allergic reactions to medications and insect stings and bites than there are to foods.
Foodservice employees should understand the risks associated with food allergies and ways they can prevent allergic reactions from happening to their customers. Proper training is required to learn about food allergens, avoiding cross-contact, the importance of labelling and how to engage in open communication with customers about their allergies.
It’s imperative that not only Health & Aged Care residents but also the general hospitality areas of restaurants’, cafes, takeaways’ where staff members know what ingredients are used in every component of every meal on the menu, as well as “aliases” for allergies (e.g., casein and whey are dairy, gluten and semolina are wheat.)
One of the most important elements of proper food safety protocol is avoiding cross-contact, where foods containing an allergen are transferred to foods not containing that allergen, such as chopping shrimp on a board and then chopping salad greens on that same board. A shellfish-allergic guest could have a reaction from eating the greens that came into contact with the shrimp during prep. The difference between cross-contact and cross-contamination is that anyone can become ill from cross-contamination if they eat foods that touched raw proteins. Cross-contact is dangerous only for food-allergic guests, who may inadvertently ingest their allergens if proper care wasn’t taken during food prep.
On 25 May 2017 lupin was added to the list of allergens that must be declared. Food businesses have 12 months from this date to meet mandatory allergen declaration requirements for any food products containing lupin.
Because training requires an investment of time and money, until there’s a greater demand for protection, it will take more time for allergen training to be regulated across the country.
FSANZ established the Allergen Collaboration in late 2011 to strengthen engagement and collaboration among a range of stakeholders involved in managing food allergens. The Collaboration was established following an allergen review by FSANZ.
Members of the Collaboration, including food manufacturing, consumer and government representatives, meet to explore non-regulatory measures that can improve the management of food allergens.
To date, the Collaboration has: audited existing allergen communication material, developed a free training view for food service staff, developed a series of key messages about food allergen management for various sectors throughout the food chain and launched a food allergen portal.
The portal provides access to best practice information to help stakeholders manage food allergens.
Read more about the food allergen portal
More information
Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy, Allergy and Anaphylaxis Australia , Allergy New Zealand, Food allergies and intolerance.
Information from various sources.