Sodexo gears up to meet allergen rule changes

01-Jun-2014 - Last updated on 03-Jun-2014 at 14:53 GMT

Catering firm Sodexo has implemented a raft of food allergen procedures required for the meals it serves when the Food Information for Consumers Regulation (FIR) comes into force on December 13.

It is a major task for the company, given that it operates from 2,300 locations and delivers about 1M meals daily, according to its head of nutrition and dietetics Wan Mak.

“It is a major task for everybody in foodservice who are cooking from scratch,” said Mak.

Sodexo uses ingredients and pre-prepared foods comprising between 40,000 and 50,000 different stock keeping units sourced from a variety of suppliers. It puts these components together into meals to serve to its customers in both the public and private sectors.

'Huge onus to get it right'

“There is a huge onus on us to get it right and making sure that we can advise our consumers in terms of the 14 allergens that we will be able to report on within our dishes,” said Mak.

“So any consumers can come up to any of our outlets and ask us about any particular food if they are allergic to something and whether it contains one of these allergens. It means that we have to have processes in place to be able to tell the consumer what it contains.”

To meet the new requirements of the FIR, Sodexo has provided additional training for all of its staff. “The key change is that staff are not allowed to say that they don’t know [what allergens are contained in dishes] and that they are aware of what the 14 allergens are,” said Mak.

“As part of their food safety training they would have information about the 14 allergens. We now need to start informing them through our e-learning about what the FIR is.”

Formulation changes

Sodexo has procedures that notify it of any changes suppliers make to food formulation that might affect the allergen content of its meals. Such changes would need to be made to recipe cards so that it could regularly update its staff.

In 2009, as a part of programme to introduce calorie labelling for recipe dishes, it invested in computer systems to centralise all nutritional information for foods. It is now extending this to include allergen information.

“Every single ingredient that we have coming into the business has nutritional information and we will also request allergen information, so it is always kept up to date,” she said. This would involve keeping track of perhaps 100–200 reformulations each week, she added.

“Across all of our sites we are working on a system that is going to help us deliver that so that it makes it easier for our teams. And if there are any [formulation] changes, there will be something that will inform them of that.”

Draft FSA allergen guidance

Meanwhile, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has published on its web site draft guidance on allergen labelling for pre-packed and non-pre-packed foods under FIR.

The new rules require firms to emphasise allergens in the ingredients list. In addition, all food businesses selling non-pre-packed food – like Sodexo – will need to provide information on allergenic ingredients to consumers.

For non-pre-packed foods the FSA stated: “Where it is not practical for this information to be provided in a written format, the food business should use clear signposting to direct the customer to where this information can be found, such as asking members of staff.”

The guidance noted that where this happened there must be a statement to this effect on food menus, chalkboards, food order tickets, food labels or webpages.

It added: “Given the practical difficulties some businesses may face, such as ensuring that written menus are kept up-to-date and display accurate information regarding allergenic ingredients used in products, food business operators have flexibility to provide allergens information orally. In such cases customers can obtain information from fully informed members of staff.”