Food allergen manager for shopowners

[raeyo]

Hi there,

We succesfully launched a unique food allergen manager for shopowners in Europe and we are looking for business opportunities in the US.

In Europe there is a new law (2014) where shopowners need to calculate the allergens, ingredients, and nutritionvalues (2017) of their recipes.

Now as you know every producer has their own productsheet and bakeries, butchers, etc.. are creating own recipes that contains several productsheets (in different formats) ... so you need to be a pro in mathematics to calcullate all those values. Thats why we build this unique system so those shopowners only need to add their recipes and the system calcullates everything automatically.

We are contacting all producers and digitalising all sheets  for a small monthly fee... so all those shopowners infact are gaining money cause if they need to appoint an employee they will pay a lot more and they are not sure if this is done accurate (..)

Now I don't want to go in detail that much but am sure that this system will also be a succes in big cities in the US if the law will be the same as in europe.. In other words: In Europe a shopowner needs to pass all allergens info to his client before purchasing the (custom) products, if client asks about it.

I know the rules are different in the US but are there any plans in the future of the governement to launch such a same law? Some rumours?

Best regards,

Raey

[SilverLining]

There is no law in North America regarding the amount of an allergen in a product.

With regard to allergens, yes or no is all that matters.

[raeyo]

So when a client asks: "what allergens are in this custom product", the shopowner do not have to mention the allergens that are in it?

Here the allergens even need to be shown on the menu (restaurants, etc).

[SilverLining]

If there is peanut in it, they need to have that information available. But they do not have to specify how much.

[raeyo]

Ok so in short they do have to mention what's in it but they don't really get a penalty cause they are not checked by the governement about the knowledge of the allergens in their recipes, right?

[SilverLining]

When you said "calculate the allergens ingredients and nutrition values" what exactly do you mean? I took that to mean, the amount.

Whether there is one peanut or ten doesn't matter. The ingredient matters, but for allergy, the amount does not.

[CMdeux]

by "shopowners" do you mean restaurants??

Because as far as I'm aware, in the US, anyway, restaurants are largely eat-at-your-own-risk, and most are not obligated to provide you anything but a statement that says so.

Food-service is quite a different thing from packaged foods, which are generally covered under FALCPA.  Many consumers (erroneously) assume that this also covers food service, and it most certainly does NOT.

Civil remedies are all that wronged consumers have-- even if they have been out and out misled or lied to by staff.

[raeyo]

My bad sorry..  :p

With "calculate the allergens" I meant actually "check" if any allergens are present in a custom product (recipe).

One recipe contains maybe 5-8 sheets from different producers. In Europe the shopowners must be able to say what allergens are in that recipe (not the amount obviously). He needs to tell the client "yup.. Nuts, egg and fish is present in product X".

I was just wondering how strict the rules are in the US regarding this matter

[raeyo]

@CMdeux

With "shopowners" I mean indeed restaurants but also bakeries, butchers, sandwishbars, pizza, etc...

Since some persons died due to allergens in food, Europe launched some strict rules about it..

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-30395142

So far, I have the impression that the US governement don't have any plans in the near future to change the regulation aswell.

... so our system will be useless then

[SilverLining]

Maybe if the new laws work well over there, they might get introduced here. (Not US, but Canada.)