Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act

The RI Department of Health will be enforcing two labeling regulations in 2006 for foods packed by a store and sold prepackaged. Foods prepackaged at your store might include the following: salads, olives, mixes, muffins, soup, bread, cookies, sandwiches, meatballs and sauce, trail mix, or dips, to name a few. It does not matter whether you make the product from scratch or buy the product in bulk and repack in smaller containers.

First there has been a regulation on the books that previously had not been enforced. It requires a full listing of ingredients on prepackaged items and that the label also list the company’s name and address. The second regulation is the new FDA allergen labeling law (Anita has previously distributed this information to our members). This requires that an ingredient statement on your label must include allergen information as it relates to the eight major allergen groups. (Milk, Eggs, Fish, Crustacean Shellfish, Wheat, Soybeans, Peanuts and Tree Nuts).

It sounds fairly easy to implement. However, when we began to really look at our labels at Eastside Marketplace, we realized there were many areas where we were not in compliance. For example, most mayonnaise, including Hellmann’s, is made with blended oil that has a % of soy oil. Therefore, the label must read “contains soy”. Another example, we use to pack our own croutons and dressing in our grab and go Casesar salads. To add those ingredients to the label made the label to big for the package. We opted to buy small-prepackaged items that had their own labels and include them in the salad.

I urge all of you to take a close look at the items you pack in-house. I certainly do not have all the answers, but I’m glad to share with any of you what I do know. Feel free to call me @ (401) 831-771. Also, I recommend Ken Collins’ consulting services. Ken provides Food Safety Management training at RIFDA and has done consulting for Eastside Marketplace in this area. His number is (401) 949-0279. Nancy Starziano Rhode Island Food Dealers Association Chairman of the Board