In an article in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI) - www.jacionline.org , Lara Ford and colleagues  in the US, studied the allergen labelling of foods to determine what those declarations mean and their impact on those with food allergies.

The researchers were particularly focussed on ;

1) the frequency and level of contamination of a large sample of products with advisory labeling for three major allergens (egg, milk, and peanut),

2) differences in the contamination risks between large and small manufacturers, and

3) the frequency and level of contamination of products that lack advisory labeling but are similar to ones bearing allergen warnings.

The study involved the taking of samples of foods that were, and weren't, labelled with allergen precautions from several supermarkets, and then these were tested for peanut, egg and milk allergens.

There is increasing evidence that with so many foods now displaying "may contain" or equivalent labelling, people are starting to ignore these warnings, So the findings of this study, are of much interest to all food manufacturers and to food authorities, as well as those with food alergies and their supporting groups.

 Of particular interest is the difference between large food business and small in terms of the actual amount of the tested unintentional allergen in the food.Small companies were found to have more contaminated foods, at 5.1% contamination, and large companies had 0.7% of products contaminated.

Although the researchers recommend that more research is needed, the findings from this study reinforce the recommendations by many allergy support groups that allergy sufferers need to take notice of the labelling.

The problem is that there are still many ways of stating the warning or precaution and this is still confusing consumers and purchasers. Use of the Allergen Bureau's VITAL system for labelling foods by manufacturers will help to overcome this increasingly significant issue. For more information about VITAL go to www.allergenbureau.net.au