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. 2020 Sep 4;12(9):2698.
doi: 10.3390/nu12092698.

Characteristics of Allergen Labelling and Precautionary Allergen Labelling in Packaged Food Products Available in Latin America

Noé Ontiveros  1 , Jesús Aristeo-López Gallardo  2 , Jesús Gilberto Arámburo-Gálvez  3 , Carlos Eduardo Beltrán-Cárdenas  2 , Oscar Gerardo Figueroa-Salcido  3 , José Antonio Mora-Melgem  2 , Diana María Granda-Restrepo  4 , Cecilia Ivonne Rodríguez-Bellegarrigue  5 , Marcela de Jesús Vergara-Jiménez  2 , Feliznando Isidro Cárdenas-Torres  2 , Martina Hilda Gracia-Valenzuela  6 , Francisco Cabrera-Chávez  2
Affiliations

Characteristics of Allergen Labelling and Precautionary Allergen Labelling in Packaged Food Products Available in Latin America

Noé Ontiveros et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

The characteristics of food allergen labelling are relevant for avoiding accidental exposure to the allergens of interest but no Latin American country has evaluated these characteristics. Our aim was to evaluate the characteristics of food allergen labelling and precautionary allergen labelling (PAL) in six Latin American countries. All data were collected directly from the supermarkets surveyed. A total of 10,254 packaged food products were analyzed, of which 63.3% (n = 6494) and 33.2% (n = 3405) featured allergen labelling and/or PAL, respectively. Most products complied with local regulations (≥87.4% for both locally produced and imported). Thirty-three types of PAL statements were detected; the most frequent was "may contain traces of…" (35.1%). Countries without regulations on the characteristics of allergen labelling had two-fold more products that contained allergens in their ingredients lists but no food allergen labelling. The use of PAL in countries that regulate it (38.2%) was as high as that in countries without PAL regulations (19.2%-44.7%). The findings suggest that the lack of regulations for the characteristics of allergen labeling increases the risk of accidental exposure to allergens of interest. Our findings also suggest that beyond regulations, a scientific approach is required for minimizing and standardizing the use of PAL.

Keywords: Latin America; allergen labelling; packaged food products.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Percentage of products with food allergen labelling and the characteristics of the labelling in commercially available packaged food products in six Latin American countries. (A): Percentage of products with food allergen labelling by country (in pie charts: green and red sections; proportions of products with or without food allergen labelling, respectively); (B): Percentage of food allergens declared in food allergen labelling; (C): Statements used for food allergen labelling; (D): Typography used for food allergen labelling (the summation of percentages is greater than 100% due to the use of two or more typographical characteristics in combination).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Compliance and non-compliance with local regulations for the characteristics of food allergen labelling by food category. Percentages in orange bars (█): frequency of non-compliance of food products with local regulations for food allergen labelling; Percentages in blue bars (█): frequency of products in compliance with local regulations for food allergen labelling. Percentages at the tops of the bars correspond to the percentages of packaged foods with food allergen labelling.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Percentages of packaged foods with precautionary allergen labelling (PAL) and the most frequent types of PAL. (A): frequencies of products with PAL by food categories; (B): pie center: most frequently used types of PAL in packaged foods; pie periphery: most frequently declared food allergens in PAL (The summation of percentages is more than 100% due to a combination of two or more allergens in PAL).
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