IFN 01-24 – New mandatory allergen labelling requirements

Issued: 19 February 2024

Attention

• Food importers

Purpose

To advise food importers of regulatory changes to mandatory allergen declarations on food labels that come into effect on 25 February 2024.

Key points

• Changes have been made to how allergens are declared on food labels to make it easier for consumers to identify allergens present in a food.
• Food that is manufactured or produced from 25 February 2024 onwards must meet the new requirements in Standards 1.2.3 of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code.
• At the end of the transition period on 25 February 2024, a two-year stock in trade period will allow a food packaged and labelled before the end of the transition period to continue to be sold for up to 2 years.
• If food is required to have a label, importers must declare allergens for each ingredient, food additive or processing aid, that is, or contains, an allergen.
• Allergens that must be declared include:
  • added sulphites in concentrations of 10 mg/kg or more
  • egg
  • fish, crustacea and mollusc
  • individual tree nuts: almond, Brazil nut, cashew, hazelnut, macadamia, pecan, pine nut, pistachio, and walnut
  • lupin
  • milk
  • peanut
  • sesame seed
  • soy, soya, soybean
  • wheat (with or without gluten), rye, barley, oats, and their hybridised strains, if they contain gluten (or products of these foods)
• The allergens to be declared must appear in:
  • the statement of ingredients.
  • a separate but co-located summary statement beginning with the word ‘contains’ and the word ‘gluten’ must appear in the summary statement if the allergen is wheat, barley, rye, oats, or hybrids of these foods that contain gluten.
  • bold font to make allergen declaration easier to identify from surrounding information.
  • a font size no smaller than that used for other text.

Example statement of ingredients

• If non-compliant labelling is identified at an inspection, the importer has the following options:
  • relabel the food so that it is compliant and book a reinspection with the department;
    or
  • re-export or destroy the food under departmental supervision.

Instructions

• Have a plan in place to ensure food manufactured or produced from 25 February 2024, complies with the new allergen labelling requirements.
• Familiarise yourself with the new allergen labelling requirements.
• Ensure that food labels declare all allergens in the new format and check no allergens are omitted by asking suppliers for ingredient information and/or product specification sheets.
• Find out more information about the new allergen labelling requirements from Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). Information about allergen labelling is also available from the Australian Food and Grocery Council and the Allergen Bureau.

Background

Undeclared allergens in food are a significant risk to human health for people with food allergies.

FSANZ developed a five-year implementation plan to support the new requirements:

• Businesses had a three-year transitional period to comply with the new requirements. During this period, importers could comply with the existing declarations or the new requirements.
• At the end of the transition period on 25 February 2024, a two-year stock in trade period will allow a food packaged and labelled before the end of the transition period to continue to be sold for up to 2 years.

These changes will assist consumers to identify allergen information on food labels and allow them to make safer food choices.

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