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Under EU law, food producers or marketers are obliged to name the 14 most important allergens in the list of ingredients of packaged foods and to provide such information for open goods or prepared foods. However, allergens can also get into a food unintentionally. There are no binding labelling rules for such trace impurities. For legal liability protection, therefore, the products often contain information such as: "May contain traces of ...” Such a statement is of little help to an allergy sufferer. Therefore, there has been a discussion for some time about the definition of threshold values for allergenic substances, which should replace the current regulation and lead to more safety for the allergy sufferer. The definition of safe thresholds is not trivial and is based, among other things, on mathematical models.
The working group VSEP ("VI-TAL Scientific Expert Panel") published revised reference doses in the study "VITAL 3.0" (= Voluntary Incidental Trace Allergen Labelling) (2019).
The scientists derive a so-called trigger dose ED01 for each of the allergens investigated. This is defined in such a way that 99 % of the allergy sufferers concerned do not show any measurable allergic reactions in view of the amount of allergen in the food. However, in the worst case, a small proportion of the remaining 1% of those affected could have severe or even life-threatening reactions. Unfortunately, the extent of the allergic reactions cannot be predicted with certainty. There is therefore a small residual risk, but for the majority of those affected, the threshold value model would have clear advantages for their everyday life.
In summary, VITAL 3.0 results in the following adjustments to the reference doses:
- for egg, milk and shrimps the reference doses were increased
- for lupines, soya, wheat and sesame the values were lowered
- for cashew nuts, celery, fish and walnuts the values were determined for the first time
- for peanuts, hazelnuts and mustard the reference doses remain unchanged
The individual values can be found in the publication below.
We would like to point out that these reference doses are not yet binding and that food products currently have to be labelled according to the existing Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 in the latest version.
The food laboratories of the AGROLAB GROUP carry out allergen determinations in food mostly themselves. We use the usual accredited immunological test procedures that directly detect the allergenic protein/peptide. Where this is not possible, the detection is carried out indirectly using PCR technology at DNA level.
Summary of the 2019 VITAL Scientific Expert Panel Recommendations.
Autor: Dr. Frank Mörsberger
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