On September 5, 2024, the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) published the Food Precautionary Allergen Labelling (PAL) and Allergen Threshold Requirements. The main contents are as follows:

Introduction to PAL

· Unintended allergens (allergens which are not a listed ingredient) can be present in prepacked (footnote 1) food products due to cross contamination in the food chain and can pose a risk to people with food hypersensitivities. 

· The first line of defence is to reduce this risk as far as possible through good allergen management practices.  Food businesses should carry out risk assessments for their products to inform food safety management systems.

· If food safety management practices do not remove or adequately reduce the potential risk, then UK food businesses can voluntarily use PAL to alert consumers to the potential presence of the allergen(s).

In the UK the use of PAL is voluntary, with a guidance-based approach.  This is currently the same in most countries (including the EU, US and Australia) that use it in some way.  However, as noted above, if it is not applied and someone with a food hypersensitivity experiences an adverse reaction there could be a breach of food law, because the food may be unsafe.  FSA guidance states that if, after a business conducts a risk assessment, an unavoidable risk of allergen cross-contamination has been identified (and cannot be sufficiently controlled through risk management) the product should have a PAL.

The Requirements also include the following:

- How do food businesses currently make decisions about PAL?  

- PAL thresholds: evidence base and further work needed

- Codex proposals to introduce global standards for PAL

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Click to see the original text: https://www.food.gov.uk/board-papers/precautionary-allergen-labelling-and-allergen-thresholds