Introduction:

Existing regulations requiring food establishments to label on the presence of mandatory declaration allergen fail to prevent accidental adverse reactions from occurring in susceptible consumers. Therefore, this paper reviews the existing European legislation on allergens and analyses the reasons why health alerts for undeclared allergens continue to occur, proposing possible solutions to solve this problem.

Method:

Documentary research was carried out in five stages. For this purpose, literature published up to November 2022 was collected.

Results:

Regulation 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers sets out the labelling rules applicable to allergens contained in products. In its article 36, one of the voluntary food information to be included is the possible unintended presence in the food of substances or products causing allergies or intolerances, also known as precautionary allergen labelling (PAL). Confusion surrounding the use of PAL, the complex structure of the food chain and, in some cases, poorly trained staff all can increase the risk of placing unsafe products on the market within the reach of susceptible people.

Conclusions:

It is considered appropriate to intensify the training of workers in all food establishments the PAL.

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