Food Safety

Allergies

Nut Allergies: Information for Foodservice Operators

Food allergies are a serious food safety concern. Scientists estimate that approximately 12 million Americans suffer from food allergies. That is one in 25, or 4 percent of the population. About 2.2 million school-age children in the U.S. have food allergies, and the incidence in those under the age of 3 is one in 17. The good news is that many of these children will outgrow their food allergies. Approximately 6.9 million Americans are allergic to seafood, and about 3.3 million are allergic to peanuts or tree nuts (reliable figures aren’t available for the other common food allergens). Eight foods account for 90 percent of all food-allergic reactions in the U.S.: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts (e.g., walnuts, almonds, cashews, pistachios, pecans), wheat, soy, fish, and shellfish. The incidence of food allergies in the U.S. has doubled over the last 10 years. This conclusion is based on reports from allergists across the country, as well as on studies of allergies to peanuts and tree nuts. For example, a FAAN study that was conducted in 1997 and repeated in 2002 showed that peanut allergy had doubled in children during that five-year time span. Scientists don’t know why food allergies are increasing, but they’re trying to find out. One theory holds that because children in our culture are exposed to fewer germs than our bodies are used to dealing with, the immune system, deprived of its customary full-time germ-fighting job, misidentifies certain foods as harmful.

Major Food Allergens

Below is a list of Major Food Allergens

  • Milk
  • Eggs
  • Fish (e.g. bass, flounder, cod)
  • Seafood (e.g. crab, lobster, shrimp)
  • Tree nuts (e.g. almonds, walnuts, pecans)
  • Peanuts
  • Wheat
  • Soybeans

Allergen Labeling Law

On January 1, 2006, the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) of 2004 took effect. The law requires that food manufacturers identify the presence of the eight major food allergens on food labels.
As a foodservice professional, you need to know that the FALCPA labeling law does not directly apply to foodservice operations. As an amendment to the Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act, the FALCPA targets packaged foods regulated by the FDA. However, there are two points worth noting:

  • If you pre-package foods and offer them for sale (e.g. take-home entrees or salads), you are subject to labeling requirements. If a customer asks for a take-home box or doggie bag, though, you are not.
  • As a restaurant owner or manager, you are the key resource for clients who consume your meals. Without access to package labels, clients depend on you, your staff and your menus to answer questions about food ingredients.

Cross-Contact

A key term in the food allergy arena today is cross-contact, or contamination of one food with an allergy-causing ingredient from another food. Cross contact in the food allergy world is the quite similar to cross contamination in the food sanitation world. It may occur during manufacturing or in food handling. Foodservice professionals need to be alert to this hazard in the foodservice environment. For example, chopping walnuts on a cutting board that is also used for chopping pears for a salad is a cross-contact concern for customers with a walnut allergy who order the pear, gorgonzola and walnut salad without walnuts.