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The Food Safety Centre
Allergen Resource Bureau
Pilot project
to identify and reduce allergen related
knowledge gaps
in the small and medium enterprise
sector of the Australian food industry
Amabel Fulton and Chris Chapman
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Objectives
• To improve public health and business
risk outcomes for the entire food
manufacturing sector within Australia,
by
– understanding the allergen-related knowledge
base of the SME food manufacturing sector, and
the gaps in this knowledge, and
– Identifying next steps for designing and facilitating
a system to deliver allergen information to the
SME sector
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
What recommendations?
• Simple tools and systems to assist
small to medium food manufacturers to
manage allergens
• Options for cost-effective continuation of
this initiative
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
This session
• Results to date
• What services would help SMEs
manage allergens better?
• What options for continuation of this
initiative?
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Methods
• Survey designed to collect data on
– allergen management practices
– information needs and sources
– customer info needs
– critical allergen issues, and
– training
• Survey emailed to 600 through NFIS
• Response rate of <5% after 2 weeks
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
11 allergen best practices
1. Do you segregate storage of raw materials eg.
allergens below non-allergens?
2. Do you audit raw material suppliers or co-packers?
3. Do you use specific scoops and tools for handling
allergens (e.g., colour-coded)
4. Do you do a full clean-down between production
runs?
5. Do you carefully and specifically label the finished
product?
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
11 allergen best practices
6. Do you conduct risk assessment(s)?
7. Do you include allergen hazards into a site HACCP
plan?
8. Do you conduct allergen testing of environment,
raw material and/or finished product?
9. Do you conduct staff awareness training and
updates?
10. Do you have an allergen re-work policy?
11. Do you utilise production scheduling for allergen
control?
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Activity
• For questions 6-16
• For every always answer, give yourself
1 point
• For every sometimes answer, give
yourself 0.5 points
• Add up your score
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Your score?
0 0% 6 55%
1 9% 6.5 59%
1.5 14% 7 64%
2 18% 7.5 68%
2.5 23% 8 73%
3 27% 8.5 77%
3.5 32% 9 82%
4 36% 9.5 86%
4.5 41% 10 91%
5 45% 10.5 95%
5.5 50% 11 100%
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
% of best practices nominated as used
100%
% of responses
80%
60%
41%
40%
18% 18%
20% 9% 14%
0%
0-19 20-39 40-59 60-79 80-100
% of practices
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Do you segregate storage of raw materials eg. Allergens below non-
allergens?
100
86
80
60
40
20 14
0 0 0
0
Always Some times Never Not sure No answer
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Do you audit raw material suppliers or co-packers?
100
80
60
36
40 32
23
20 9
0
0
Always Some times Never Not sure No answer
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Do you use specific scoops and tools for handling allergens
(e.g., colour-coded)?
100
80
55
60
40
23 18
20 5
0
0
Always Some times Never Not sure No answer
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Do you do full clean-down between production runs?
100
80 68
60
40
23
20 9
0 0
0
Always Some times Never Not sure No answer
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Do you carefully and specifically label the finished product?
100
80 68
60
40
20 14
9 5 5
0
Always Some times Never Not sure No answer
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Do you conduct risk assessment?
100
80
60 55
40
27
18
20
0 0
0
Always Some times Never Not sure No answer
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Do you include allergen hazards into a site HACCP plan?
100
80
60 50
40
27
20 9 9
5
0
Always Some times Never Not sure No answer
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Do you conduct allergen testing of environment, raw material and/or
finished product?
100
80
60
45
40 27
18
20 9
0
0
Always Some times Never Not sure No answer
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Do you conduct staff awareness training and updates?
100
80
60 50
36
40
20 14
0 0
0
Always Some times Never Not sure No answer
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Do you have an allergen re-work policy?
100
80
60
45
40
14 14 18
20 9
0
Always Some times Never Not sure No answer
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Do you utilise production scheduling for allergen control?
100
80
60
45
40
27 27
20
0 0
0
Always Some times Never Not sure No answer
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
% of best practices nominated as used
100%
% of responses
80%
60%
41%
40%
18% 18%
20% 9% 14%
0%
0-19 20-39 40-59 60-79 80-100
% of practices
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Improving allergen management
More than 95% identified room for improvement.
Suggestions included:
• conduct staff training,
• improve labelling,
• review allergen management protocol,
• improve storage segregation,
• improve cleaning between production runs,
• use specific tools,
• conduct risk assessment and audit suppliers.
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Critical issues
18% indicated that their company had critical
issues relating to allergen management:
• reliability of suppliers
• change of ingredients where we are not notified
• imported goods
• cross contamination
• labelling of inwards goods
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Information needs
41% need more information about allergens
including:
• Specific reactions to sulphur products
• Nature and risk of fish and shellfish allergen
• Update of products that contain allergens
• Reports of legal cases or issues
• Risk management procedures
• Recent research
• List of allergens and their risks
• Handling guidelines for restaurants
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Information sources
• 86% of respondents have sought allergen
information
• The three most common sources:
– Your suppliers (72%)
– The Food Standards Code (55%)
– In-house staff (41%)
• 23% of respondents have had difficulty in
obtaining particular information
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Training in allergen management
• 45% of respondents reported no staff trained
in allergen management
• 32% reported staff trained in allergen
management.
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Summary – (early days)
• About 60% allergen aware
• About 40% allergen pro-active
• About 40% allergen unaware
• About 20% have critical issues
• About 40% need more information
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Where to from here?
• Aim to have 100 surveys completed
• Please complete the confidential survey
today, return to registration desk
• Bureau members to encourage
suppliers to complete survey
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
What services would help SMEs
manage allergens better?
• Forum where they could get together with larger food companies and regulatory
bodies as well and communicate ideas – allow them to express concerns, give
ideas about how to manage allergens and labelling
• Website – access information – where go to, need right links
• SMEs not time / awareness, go through industry bodies or regulators who have
to contact them, make aware that if not up to date allergen policy, they can be
providers of website address or information
• Smaller suppliers don’t even know what questions to ask bc not aware of issues,
govt food safety certificates, $25, basic outline, local council offered on Sat
morning
• Basic tools to do their risk assessment, not so advanced as bigger companies
• Provide the information in steps, basic outline, with build of information gradually
– web, course, info
• Bureau could provide training sessions – generic or tailored for SMEs
• Larger companies with established systems could agree to mentor or sponsor a
smaller company until brought up to speed
• Access to cheap and reliable testing if want to verify their processes
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
What options for continuation of this
initiative?
• Partnerships between industry enforcement, industry regulators,
build an environment where fostering compliance, all parts of
business involved
• Offer memberships to get support base, and cost is based on
company size, sliding scale, get lots more members, cross
subsidise large to small business
• Grant from ?? To help make this happen
• If companies providing employment to local council areas, local
govt could be involved
• EHOs don’t have a good grasp – use as a conduit, internal
recognition that this needs to happen
• Incorporate a work experience Uni student to do some helping
of setting it up as a project
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
What services would help SMEs
manage allergens better?
• Reduce the cost of them attending food allergen workshops
• At workshops, have allergen organisations update on the problem
• Other sources of information where SMEs can find out about this?
Trade associations, chambers of commerce, industry associations
• Pick them up through food recalls
• Simplify it – not the science – what is the bare minimum I need to do
• Build on what has been done in providing the training package on
Bureau website, download
• Approach it from a regulatory perspective? How partner with them?
• How do small organisations access the information that the members of
the bureau have? What fees put in place for access to SMEs
• EHOs out there have no ideas about allergens – out there all the time,
Councils the same, esp when businesses setting up
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Marine Room
• Thai restaurant would score 0 – food service sector don’t know, hands over eyes
and ears on subject, get message to them they need to be part of this process
themselves
• People don’t understand because can’t quantify in clear terms what the problem
is – no where to go to say this is the size of the problem, this is incidence, this is
what we agreed on
• New Zealand – issues in supermarkets, as well as food service
• Maybe need colour poster to be stuck on the walls in these cetnres with the 8
allergens – have you info to give your customers on this? In UK FSA website
poster for caterers – only emphasises 4 allergens
• Limited response, what else did you send out to raise awareness of this whole
project, got an educational issue and awareness, big gap between smaller and
larger companies – make them aware
• Need to integrate allergen into food safety plans, drive these down to suppliers,
got to become part of integrated system
• Include allergens in basic hygiene training – then all through the whole system
• A lot of SMEs getting allergen information from us – we demand it and therefore
have to learn about it – our people doing training for them. BE major source of
info
• Food companies become interested because staff have allergen issues, this
affects the awareness and attitudes – use these people
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Freshwater 2
• Keep it quick and simple, haven’t got
time to spend a whole day at a seminar
• Many use websites, good source of info,
simple quick and poster
• Use consultants
• Information packs – like the clinical
people spoke about – DVDs etc
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
What options for continuation of this
initiative?
• Free training courses – short courses
• Consistent interpretation
• Time commitment for SMEs big hurdle
• Buddy system between larger cos and smaller
• Larger companies put seminars on for the smaller companies
• Target small companies, go to them, road shows
• Allergy awareness week – last year theme targeted food service
sector, produced marketing material – could build on that and/or
partner with them in that
• Training – how fit? Evening event, a couple of hours, straight
from work, smaller context, 20 of them to get benefits of
networking as well
• EHOs and TAFEs keen to develop courses, take information,
and also through the health departments
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
The Food Safety Centre
Allergen Resource Bureau
First year review
Amabel Fulton and Tim Tabart
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Outcomes
• Understand the ways in which the Allergen
Bureau is delivering value to its members
and other stakeholders
• Identify areas in which this service could be
improved
• Contribute to a strategic plan through which
the Bureau can sustainably provide value to
its members
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Methods
• Phone survey of the current 24 member
companies
• Web-based survey of 500 non-member
organisations who have logged on to the
Allergen Bureau web-site since its inception
• Questions:
– Usage of the Bureau and satisfaction level
– Potential new services
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Interim results
Members Non-Members
# surveyed 14 53
# employees
6050 268
(average)
# times used website
(median) 4-10 1-3
Likely to join coming Yes 11 Yes 7%
year? No 1 No 20%
Unsure 2 Unsure 73%
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Overall member satisfaction
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
1. 2 3 4 5.
Ve Ve
ry d ry s
iss ati
ati sfie
sfie d
d
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
What is the Bureau doing well?
• providing information and resources
– website
– email and phone to members
• a networking and resource hub
– “a one-stop shop, our first point of call - previously was
Google”
– relevant to Australia and New Zealand
• “Ability to discuss and consult with peers on a
non-industry sensitive basis - takes industry
competition out of the equation”
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
What could be better?
• Communicate benefits to the general food
manufacturing industry
– Promote its non-member services
– Charge less for membership from smaller companies
• More frequent newsletters
• Q&A about food allergens on the website
• Allow more open, two-way communication
between Allergen Forum groups and
companies outside those groups
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Non-Members
Why did you use the Allergen Bureau website?
%
Information and resources
85
- including services
Labelling information 15
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Factors influencing decision to join
%
Cost 44
Unsure of benefits or value for money 22
Access to information and resources 17
Need management approval 11
NZ based 6
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
How can the Allergen Bureau
better service your needs?
• Some people don’t know what the allergen bureau does – better
communicate what it is about to member staff
• Aim is to benefit supplier base – rather than us trying and solve
their problem – want a resource for the small business – if I give
them the phone number, what is on offer for them. If put into a
one-pager. We have mail out to 1500-2000 suppliers in next 2
mo, could attach in an email
• Big companies may all do the same – take advantage of us to
get the message out to our suppliers
• Bureau of benefit to people who are very involved – know what
is on there, latest research, but if not very involved, not easy to
find your way around – need a quick answer or overview harder
to find
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
How can the Allergen Bureau
better service your needs?
• Continue addressing issues such as differences between threshold levels and the impact on
people who are allergen sensitive
• Continue to build awareness of issues around allergens
• Is the media aware of the allergen bureau? Because media not well informed
• More clinicians as part of the team of the allergen bureau – people working with the allergic
consumers, creating a collaborative approach
• Develop a standard that is required – like the GI symbol, licence it, good for marketing
• What happens if disbanded later on?
• Create a manufacturing pack, consistent across the industry, for controlling allergens
• Improve the website – logins were used to assess useage; non-members actually have
similar access, but don’t know this
• Still need to provide member benefits – is providing access to non-members of value to
members, or not?
• New stuff on front page all the time
• More general information – to recommend it to people who don’t have much time. If there
are things like guidelines that could be referenced through the website as well
• Search function on allergen bureau website
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
Your to-do list
• Complete the SME survey now
– All responses are confidential and only
aggregated data will be provided to the Allergen
Bureau
• Place your confidential responses in the
collection box at the registration desk
• Complete the Allergen Bureau survey
on the web
February 2006 Allergen Bureau
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