Food allergies: Health Canada enforcing simpler food labelling rules
Published on Friday August 03, 2012


The grocery shopping experience just became much simpler and safer for people with food allergies and those who take care of them.

Health Canada's new food labelling regulations come into force Saturday. Food manufacturers will now have to explicitly list any "priority" allergens in their prepackaged products, and the language used has to be as plain as possible. Labels must also declare any sources of gluten, which can come from barley, oats, rye, triticale or wheat, as well as any added sulphites.

The simpler labelling means, for example, that if a product contains "spices," and an allergen like "mustard seeds" was a component of those spices, then mustard seeds must be listed too. If the product contains "hydrolyzed casein," which are milk proteins, then the label would have to list the common word "milk" as well.

"All Canadians have a right to know what the ingredients are in the food products they are buying," said Laurie Harada, Executive Director at Anaphylaxis Canada, in a news release. "For people with a potentially life-threatening food allergy, this information is critical."

Approximately 2.5 million Canadians report themselves as having at least one food allergy, according to the news release.

Priority allergens in food cause roughly 90 per cent of reactions, they are: tree nuts (almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios or walnuts); peanuts; sesame seeds; wheat and triticale; eggs; milk; soybeans; shellfish; fish; and mustard seeds.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1237015--food-allergies-health-canada-enforcing-simpler-food-labelling-rules