ALLERGEN LEVELS-SETTING "WORKABLE" STANDARDS

Food allergy is increasingly becoming an area of serious concern and all those involved in keeping allergens away from sensitive consumers, industry, safety managers and the government, are finding it more and more difficult to deal with the situation. There are about 8 allergens considered serious and labeling regulations mandate the industry to declare the presence of any of these substances separately to capture the attention of the prospective buyers. It was not long ago that some of these allergens were detectable only beyond 5 ppm levels with the prevalent testing protocols but with tremendous advances being made in analytic techniques and instrumentation the detection threshold is continually coming down putting the industry at a disadvantage. Many products cannot be manufactured without very low traces of allergens, considered tolerable by affected consumers. However over anxious safety enforcement agencies tend to lower such limits because of better analytic techniques. This needs to be resisted as it borders on "over kill" with no additional benefit to any one. Here is a take on this emerging scenario vis-a-vis allergen detection.  

"We know that technology is capable of being more sensitive," said Tony Lupo, Neogen director of technical services. "The question is, what is the risk and reward of that?" Do lower levels better protect the food-allergic and food-sensitive populations? Or do they place unrealistically low levels on manufacturers? If testing detects continually lowered levels, "what does that do to the industry in performing due diligence?" Lupo asked. Of course, anytime an allergenic ingredient is added to a product, regardless of the amount, it must be declared. But when testing for unintentional cross contamination, it is currently up to the processor to determine what is acceptable. Most choose to test at 5 ppm, Lupo said. And that is a level that can be maintained through good sanitation and allergen programs. But going much below that, he added, "may mean that certain products may not be manufacturable."

There is absolutely no two opinion that allergen information is very critical in saving precious lives and the existing regulations have served well so far. A review of the existing limits for allergens may be required as and when consumers show a tendency to be vulnerable to lower levels of such substances. Industry should not be put in a difficult situation by bringing down tolerable levels of allergens to impractical levels. The glitter of sophisticated electronic instruments with fantastic analytical capabilities should not blur the vision of safety policy makers.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

"ALLERGIC" CHILDREN-A NEW BURDEN FOR SCHOOLS

Millions of people world over are affected by allergic disorders which in many cases can be fatal if not attended properly. In many cities which are highly polluted children are the victims and it is not unusual to see hospitals in these urban chaos full of children waiting for "Nebulization" for relief and other treatments. Allergies are caused by allergens of different nature entering the body generally through nose, food allergies through ingested foods, allergies caused by latex, insect bite, contact with skin and eye or  allergy or medication. The root cause is an over reaction by the body's immune system to some substances which are broadly called as allergens. 

In a startling report from the US, it was brought out that children with allergies and asthma are vulnerable to allergic reactions for which no protection is being provided in most schools. Considering that the number of affected children is very large running into millions, it is but proper for the US government to enforce a minimum protection regime in every school that can save precious lives. Here is a report on this issue.

"In the United States, asthma and allergies have a major and growing affect on schools.  About 10 percent of kids (7.1 million children) have asthma.  It is the #2 chronic disease among children (behind obesity) and the #1 chronic cause of student absenteeism (10.5 million school days missed annually due to asthma in 2008).  Last year, 185 children died because of asthma.  In addition, severe allergies and anaphylaxis – the most severe type of allergic reaction – are on the rise nationwide, particularly food allergies among children, forcing schools to prepare, manage and react to the problem.  Plus, millions of adult teachers and staff in schools have asthma and allergies, as well. With so many people affected in the school setting, these diseases create a burden on schools and communities, requiring improvements to indoor air quality (IAQ), emergency procedures and prevention training for food allergies, individual health plans for students, notifying parents of pesticide spraying, student access to medications such as epinephrine auto-injectors or albuterol inhalers, campus smoking bans and cessation programs, and more".

Pollution is the price one pays for the so called modern life style without which many families cannot live and it is the duty of the government to legislate properly to improve the environment as much as possible by cutting down pollution. As for food allergy the situation is  much better with allergen information declared on each and every food packet that reaches the consumer from the industry. One wonders what is the fate of many children in some of the poor and developing countries where allergy diagnosis itself is a problem with practically no facility for detection and treatment. Probably this is an area which may become a flash point in future in the health care field.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

MEAT PRODUCTS RECALL-"UNDECLARED" ALLERGENS MAIN CULPRITS

People in a country like India can never understand the logic behind frequent product recalls in the West citing safety reasons, as such a practice is rarely heard of in most developing countries. It is not that the foods made and retailed in these countries are repository of all virtues associated with quality and safety but absence of reliable, systematic and prompt reporting and documentation protocols in these countries allow almost all food poisoning cases to be swept under the carpet unless they are very serious involving high human casualties. In spite of tremendous progress achieved during the last two decades on surveillance and assessment technologies in the West, product recalls continue unabated mostly due to negligence with individual players and the safety authorities do not rule out such repeated recalls because of the impossible logistics involved in covering 100% of the industry. Against such a background, a trend is emerging where the reason for product recalls is shifting from microbial contamination to presence of dangerous allergens. As of now there does not appear to be any remedial regime to pre-empt such incidences except raising the awareness among the industry regarding the seriousness of such mishaps, intentional or otherwise.

Meat recalls during the first half of the year have taken on some unusual patterns. The number of recalls for pathogens found in beef, pork, and poultry has dropped off dramatically, while the recall of meat and meat products for allergens has spiked. And it's that increase in allergen-related recalls that worries Dr. Elisabeth Hagen, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's under secretary for food safety. She announced Thursday that USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced Thursday was issuing instruction for its inspectors in an effort to stem the rise in undeclared allergens and other ingredients. "This rise is of particular importance to me both as a medical doctor and as a parent, especially as recent reports have shown that the number of children with allergies is on the rise," Hagen said. "FSIS will continue to improve its efforts to ensure that public health and labeling requirements are met. "FSIS reacted after seeing 27 recalls for undeclared ingredients in the first six months of 2011; 20 were the result of undeclared allergens. In the preceding two years combined, FSIS issued recalls for a total of 32 undeclared allergens.

It is unfortunate that the population affected by allergens is growing rapidly for which no one knows the reason. There are clear guidelines about the declaration of the presence of any of the 8 allergenic ingredients listed and even when the same machinery is used for processing such ingredients it must be declared on the label. While this trend is a consolation that microbial contamination controlling protocols are increasingly becoming reliable, the allergen problem needs utmost attention to bring it under control.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com