PEAL: Plain English Allergen Labelling
Deadline for Label Requirements…
If you are a food business in Australia or New Zealand, you have until 25th February 2024 to update your labels to meet the new PEAL requirements in the Food Standards Code.
Any food manufactured and packaged after that date has to use the new allergen declaration format.
Produco can assess your current label declarations and determine any changes that are required.
Any food packaged and labelled with existing allergen declarations before 25 February 2024 may be sold for up to 2 years, with the transition period ending 25 February 2026.
Are you racing towards the deadline and need some help?
Produco food safety consultants have labelling expertise in-house. We can assess your current label declarations and determine any changes that are required to meet the new Plain English Allergen Labelling (PEAL) requirements in a fast, efficient way.
The updated Code specifies exactly which allergens must be listed, and how these must be declared on the label. This will make the declarations consistent across all packaged food and simpler for the consumer to understand.
What are the PEAL Requirements?
All allergens must be declared no matter how little amount you have in it.
Allergens need to be declared both in the ingredients list and in a separate ‘contains’ statement.
The Australian Food Standards Code now requires you to list the following common food allergens. They need to be clearly displayed with the ingredients in bold text,using the same font size as the rest of the listed ingredients:
- Nuts and Tree Nuts – Almond, Brazil Nut, Cashew, Hazelnut, Macadamia, Peanut, Pecan, Pine Nut, Pistachio, Walnut
- Egg
- Milk (includes all dairy foods and all animal milks)
- Sesame
- Soy
- Molluscs – Oyster, Octopus, Scallops, Calamari
- Fish
- Crustacea – Prawn, Lobster
- Wheat
- Barley
- Oats
- Rye
Individual nuts must now all be identified and declared separately.
Individual molluscs and individual cereals must all be identified and declared separately.
‘Wheat’ must also be labelled as a separate allergen to ‘Gluten’.
The Food Standards Code also requires that added sulphites in concentrations of 10mg/kg or more must also be declared on food labels of packaged food.
All of these allergens must be declared if they are included as:
- An ingredient
- Part of a compound ingredient (for example, if milk chocolate is present as an ingredient in a biscuit)
- A food additive
- A processing aid
.
New Requirements for 'Contains' Statement
The new ‘Contains’ statement must be separate (next to, above or below) the ingredients list. It must start with the word ‘Contains’ and:
- List the allergens using their required allergen name and no other words
- The entire contains statement must be in bold
- In the same font and size as the ingredients list
Example: you have multiple nut allergens in your food product. Therefore, you have to specify each variety of nuts i.e. ‘Contains Almonds, Cashews‘.
Need Advice?
Get sorted before the deadline.
Contact Produco food safety consultants and we can help you update your labels for packaged food in line with the new PEAL plain english allergen labelling requirements.
You can find out more about Allergens and how to avoid a Recall on our blog post here