Customers who suffer from food allergies rely primarily on the accurate ingredient information they receive from different sources within the food service businesses. This information about the ingredients used in the food prepared is not required to satisfy their taste buds but for them to make educated choices about which food they could consume without them falling ill or, in extreme cases, die.
About two per cent of the adult population and about eight per cent of children suffer from food allergies. These figures are based on medically-diagnosed cases and not on popular beliefs, where the figure is much higher at about 20 per cent.
The preparation of food is complex and includes purchase, transportation and storage, cooking and serving. During this trail of actions, unless a strict food safety management system is in place, many hazards could easily result in contaminating the food unintentionally, which would render the food inappropriate for food allergy sufferers.
For example, it is a well-known practice that a fresh fish display is found at the entrance of some restaurants to attract customers to dine there. This is a marketing practice believed to have its advantages, especially in a country surrounded by the sea. The problem arises with the content.
The main items, fish, molluscs and crustaceans, which are fish in general, mussels and the like and prawns and the like, are three of the food allergens listed by the EU.
This means the three food products are different allergens. However, because of the cross contact of the products in the display, and even prior to this, at the fish market, a person allergic to one of the products could have a reaction when consuming any of the others due to cross contamination.
Since 2006, the law introduced food safety tools that are required to eliminated or reduce to acceptable levels the risks associated with food safety hazards.
The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, better known as HACCP, is a tool that was first devised to send food to space.
Later, the industry applied it in food manufacturing and, more recently, the governments adopted it as a basic tool for food safety production, even at consumer level, that is, at restaurants or any other eatery with some flexibility depending on the size of the operation.
However, this does not mean that the small or micro food businesses are exempt from implementing some sort of food safety management, like buying their products from reputable suppliers.
The food supply chain should be strong enough for the consumer to trust all food businesses
The smaller the business, the bigger the challenge to implement a food safety system. This is because small businesses face barriers, such as time and money, though the most critical is space as a result of being small. Space is required to store and produce safe food. Yet, if it is limited, overcrowding becomes a significant risk to cross contamination as mentioned earlier with the example of the fish display.
However, it is known that food allergy sufferers prefer to eat at small businesses as they feel they will receive more attention to their dietary requests, especially when they ask to speak to the chef who would be preparing their food.
The knowledge that is required to satisfy the dietary requirements of the consumer, especially those suffering from food allergies, has to be manifested in delivering accurate information about all the ingredients within the control of the operation, not only from when these entered the business but also prior.
The food safety system which implements HACCP works with one step back and one step forward.
Therefore, the food supply chain should be strong enough for the consumer to trust all food businesses. Still, very few have implemented HACCP as most perceive the tool as complicated and time consuming.
Thirteen years have passed since this regulation was implemented across the entire EU, yet, most of the food businesses have not even heard of it and what is required to satisfy the legal obligation.
In the absence of HACCP due to food business size, good manufacturing practices, better known as pre-requisite programmes, should be in place. These programmes act as a food safety defence that will ensure safe food even for the categories of food-sensitive consumers.
The law states that food should not be placed for sale if this could be injurious to particular health sensitivities of a specific category of consumers where the food prepared is intended for that category of consumer.
But how can one reassure the food-allergic consumer that the food is safe to eat when it is not known where and how the products were stored and transported before finally arriving at the food business?
HACCP has been proven as a global food safety tool, yet, due to many misconceptions, which result from the lack of proper training and other lame excuses, many opt to ignore their obligation to implement their food safety system based on a global functional tool as can be seen in the case of fish displays.
Paulino Schembri lectures at the University of Malta and at the University of Central Lancashire, UK.
This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece