Apart from being the right thing to do, offering your customers clear allergen information is part of UK and European law, meaning that all cafes, pubs and restaurants serving food need to display clear allergy signage.
Initially the legislation only required prepacked food to display allergen information, but now the law covers nonpacked food as well. This represents a huge shift in responsibility for the food industry but where allergens such as nuts, eggs and wheat can cause life threatening biological reactions, it is a necessity.
Top 14 allergens
There are 14 allergens listed on the EU regulatory list:
- eggs
- milk
- fish
- crustaceans (for example crab, lobster, crayfish, shrimp, prawn)
- molluscs (for example mussels, oysters, squid)
- peanuts
- tree nuts (namely almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, brazils, pistachios, macadamia nuts or Queensland nuts)
- sesame seeds
- cereals containing gluten (namely wheat (such as spelt, Khorasan wheat/Kamut), rye, barley, oats, or their hybridised strains).
- soya
- celery and celeriac
- mustard
- lupin
- sulphur dioxide and sulphites (at concentration of more than ten parts per million)
Food establishments are required to notify customers (and staff) where there food contains – or may contain – any of the above ingredients. Even the possibility that your food may have come in contact with these 14 ingredients needs to be communicated.
The Consequences of No Signage
It goes without saying that the primary consequence of not informing your customers (or staff) of possible contaminations is sickness, bad health and even death in the worst cases. Mistakes cannot be allowed to happen any longer as they are deemed negligence, resulting in tragic deaths like the case of 18 year old Shahida Shahid who suffered brain damage before passing away only days after eating.
Another consequence is that placed on the cafe, pub or restaurant owners themselves. In 2014, restaurant owner Mohammed Zaman was jailed for 6 years for his ‘cavalier’ attitude that resulted in the death of a customer Paul Wilson who had a nut allergy.
How Printway can help
Printway offer a range of pre-printed allergy signage to help the customers help you, by asking them to inform staff of any issues. In addition, we offer a range of snapframes, literature stands and food allergen labelling that will help keep you legally compliant and help keep your customers healthy.
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Read more about our commitment to food allergy customer care.