New allergen regulations set to shake up food service sector: a look at the challenges and opportunities ahead.

In just 4 months’ time on December 13th, a new EU law called the Food Information to Consumers Regulation (FIR) will come into force covering all food service establishments meaning that diners will be able to ask staff whether their meal contains any of the 14 key allergens, and the staff must be able to tell them.

Obviously this is going to be a big wake-up call for some.

According to celebrity chef Anthony Worrall Thompson, the new law is going to cause an “explosion” in a sector that is “notoriously lazy at coming to terms with new laws”.

Maybe he has a point; according to recent research by Unilever Food Solutions, nearly half of all food service operators (44%) are unaware of the new law and just over half (54%) said that they were unaware of the food allergens specified by the new law.

The hardest hit will probably be the independent establishments – chains have set recipes for the chefs to follow so changes will be relatively straight-forward to implement, but for busy independent restaurants, particularly those with several chefs working shifts, cross-contamination could easily occur, with potentially disastrous results.

The new law is going to impose many challenges but it will also offer a great many opportunities for food service suppliers and manufacturers – food service operators clearly need to get to grips with the new legislation and in a recent poll, over half of establishments say that they are going to turn to their suppliers for help with allergen information.

Some manufacturers and suppliers, such as Unilever Food Solutionshttp://www.unileverfoodsolutions.co.uk/our-services/your-menu/allergensand 3663 http://www.3663.co.uk/fir have already set about positioning themselves as food allergen experts by publishing useful free allergen guides and training materials for professional caterers.

And the opportunities aren’t just limited to information and training. Food service is already a high growth area for free-from foods, but the new law is expected to dramatically accentuate the trend in the coming years, something that food service suppliers and manufacturers should be tapping into now. Alex Smith, founder of Alara Wholefoods said recently:

“A growing number of restaurants and food service establishments are expected to develop gluten-free and lactose free lines…it’s easier for a restaurant chain to buy gluten-free buns rather than make them in-house.”

As Michelle Berriedale-Johnson, founder of the Free-from food awards and Free-from eating out awards pointed out:

“It’s a massive opportunity for suppliers to food service. Many chefs don’t know much about free-from food, so they will need educating and they will need products supplying to them…In a small, busy kitchen, it’s really difficult to avoid foods coming into contact with each other. This provides a huge opportunity for suppliers that can provide free-from food in single portions in attractive wrapped packaging that can stay wrapped.”

The new allergen regulations are going to offer a lot of growth opportunities for food service suppliers and manufacturers and in our opinion, companies should have plans already in place to take advantage of the changes ahead. How well prepared are you?