Challenges in Allergen Labelling and Consumer Trust

Good morning, fellow food safetyists, and welcome to this, one day delayed episode of the, food safetyist podcast, episode seven. One day delayed, because of Easter. Spending time with the fam and all that sort of stuff pushed things back a little bit. But, anyway, here I am. And who am I? My name is Cameron. I’m the host of this, this podcast. It was created for, you know, us fellow food safety or once, you know, food safetyists, where the ones that have been, thrust upon it, just jumped into it or anything like that, the whole thing of food safety.

Now, commonly, we are food safety professionals, but I just like the whole Food safety East because, hey, you know, it’s it’s not something where I headed out, didn’t get out of bed one day and go and do a uni degree and everything like that to jump into food safety. It was just something that sort of fell into my lap, and all that sort of stuff. But anyway, kicking off today’s show before I reminiscing and start getting a little teary about things in the past. I thought I’d kick it off with the usual bit, which is, talking about, some of the recalls lately.

So where are we? According to FSANZ, the recalls that we’ve had have been, they’re still actually, correction. When did this come out? April 17. There was the big, Shiga toxin Shiga toxin producing E. Coli, in stew two spinach products, in March. Now it was detected in two prepackaged ready to eat spinach products purchased from separate Queensland supermarkets as part of a proactive public health surveillance, contact conducted over several days. This I’m quoting from the food standards, Australia and New Zealand website, which you’ll find at foodstandards.gov.au. I’ll include a link to this in the show notes.

But it, you know, it did say, that there were two products. It says, retailers like to undertake and extend the recalls in response to the detections as a precaution to protect public health. Knowing illnesses have been linked to the recall products. Recalls were proactive measure to protect Australian consumers. So it goes on and then list of it was Coles, Metcash, Woolworths, and Aldi. It was something that was pretty big. And I don’t know. Are we gonna get to the bottom of it? Who knows? Anyway, the other recall was an Uber Brow ultra low alcohol lager, three thirty mil and lager bottle six sixty mil. Coles Group was conducting a recall of the above products. The product recalled products have been available from sale from April 2 to April 15 via liquor land, first choice liquor market, Coles online in WA.

The recall is due to the presence of a chemical on the outer packaging producing an unpleasant odor. So I don’t know. I mean, is Coles getting you know, it also actually depends on on where is it on the cardboard? Is there on the glass bottles or what the article doesn’t say? The recall doesn’t say about that. And the other one getting in a little bit late now, April 16, the adora handmade chocolates. They were recalled because it had an undeclared allergen, which was pistachio. These were available for sale in the Adora handmade chocolate stores in New South Wales and online. Date marking is the 05/20/2025.

So yes. So they were recalled due to non declared allergen. So what am I gonna talk about this one? I think I’d I’d just recap some of the, articles that have come across my inbox over the last, last week. And let’s have a look at this one. Food safety news, plant based butter chicken bites recording Canada because of undeclared milk and reported reaction. This is a February gram product product code. I’ll include all this in the show notes. So, you know, don’t have to worry too much with it. It contains, milk and the posting of this recall, there’s been one reported reaction associated with the consumption of the product. This is I would say it’s a fairly important one because obviously people are taking, you know, jumping on the whole plant based product thing because they have this belief that it is going to be free of animal products. And have a look at this.

The image in the article now, it does say vegan on it as well. So that’s a bit of a a doozy there, for it to contain milk. I don’t know. I mean, should these products have, you know, what would you say? Manufacturing a facility that also does fish and eggs, you know, do a a make and time thing, or do you just come straight out and say, hey. It’s got it in it or what? A bit of a side note. I remember years oh, what about five, six years ago now, I think it was. Kohl’s used to do their own, own own brand, dark chocolate. It was vegan suitable.

And then all of a sudden, they changed the packaging as the declaration to say that it did contain milk. This is despite the ingredients not changing. And because the products you know, the the disclaimer said it did contain milk, this it was, you know, therefore, no longer to be classed as vegan suitable. And it created a bit of a discussion in the in the vegan groups and online and everything like that. So I don’t know. What do you do? And, more recently, what is it? The I think it’s there’s there’s a brand. I’m not gonna mention the brand because I’m I’m I can’t remember what brand it is. One of their plain, seaweed and rice crackers now says it contains fish. This is despite the, the ingredients not saying where the fish product is. And, you know, obviously, because of the peel plain English allergen labeling laws, that came into force last year, I think. Yeah. Last year.

It you know, all the allergens need to be cleared. Need to be declared. And once again, this product, even though it doesn’t contain fish as an ingredient, the declaration says it does contain fish as an ingredient. So, you know, once again, therefore, technically, it’s not suitable for consumption by vegans. So, you know, it it’s the thing is other companies becoming more risk averse because, you know, obviously, seaweed collected from the ocean or wherever it is and, you know, fish live in the sea, in salt water where the seaweed come from. Is the company, you know, collectively covering their own backside by, bringing this disclaimer up and saying that, hey. It does contain it when, you know, it it’s not listed as ingredient.

I I don’t know. I’m I’ll be inclined to say with everyone becoming risk averse that that’s what they’re doing. They’re they’re listing fish as an ingredient in case, something happened in, obviously, in their supply of the seaweed product. If if there was, you know, fish in there somehow when it was dried and shredded and whatever else happens, and all that sort of stuff that it’s not going to, you know, obviously, cause someone an allergic reaction that is allergic to fish with, you know, obviously, if the product doesn’t say it doesn’t, it doesn’t, all that sort of stuff. Anyway, that makes it go random spin random circles. But, you know and this is a thing. I mean, are we expecting too much as consumers when, you know, all products are likely to be made overseas somewhere.

You know, let let’s be honest. I think manufacturing in this country is is dying a slow and painful death, so more and more stuff is going to come from overseas. Is it just safer for, brands to say, you know what? This product is gonna contain this, this, this, and this, rather than, you know, running the risk of of it not having that declaration there, and then something happens, and all that sort of stuff. So I I I know, but, you know, this comes back to anything. The other thing that I was talking about before is consumers. I think that we need to start putting demands on the not necessarily the product manufacturer, but more the the retailers.

And, you know, without getting too political, we need to start putting demands on our government that we need to be producing stuff locally rather than importing everything, so we can, you know, have a better idea of where the products are, what the products contain, and everything like that. But, anyway, I get onto that soapbox because I think that’s one of those things that, once I jump up on that soapbox, then I won’t be getting off for a while. Now there’s something else that, I wanted to touch on was, where is it? Trying to find my notes here. Something, beverage daily.

This actually, this one’s an old article that only came across last week. There’s a an idea, say, that saccharin, may be used in global antimicrobial resistance, Flicking through the articles. Saccharin is blah blah blah blah blah. Here we go. Recently, a group of academics discovered that saccharin harbors antimicrobial properties, meaning that it can kill pathogenic bacteria similar to how antibiotics antibiotics antibiotics work. The research published in EMBO molecular medicine builds on existing findings of the ingredients of antimicrobial activity, but further furthers knowledge into how cells respond to exposure to saccharin.

They found the sweetener to fuse with DNA replication and to shock bacterial growth causing cell death, and also stops bacteria from forming biofilms protective layer that prevents antibiotics from killing pathogens. It it coming down to the the the that should be regarded as safe thing. I don’t know. If if you’re consuming something that can interfere with the DNA of bacteria, I mean, how do we anyway, I think I might stop that one there, but people should be able to have a guess as to where I was going with that one. So I don’t know.

It’s it’s something interesting, and I think that that bit, you know, we as for safety professionals, and, obviously, things like that, I think that that is something that now that it’s, come to a point of saying that, hey. This can do this, that maybe, we consider the impact on human consumption, that maybe the information needs to change a little bit, and see what we got on there. Now I’m not making any, comments about saccharin itself, whether it’s it’s something that should be consumed or shouldn’t be consumed or anything like that. I will leave that one up to you. As I said, the consumer. But I just thought it was interesting, to talk about there.

Something else I did want to talk about on this one is let let me just pull up the notes. I’ll get better and get better prepared one day. But, hey. You know what? I I think this is the the nature of the beast. There will be articles all over the place. Some we will look at and some okay. That’s there. What else? Okay. Yeah. Following interesting comments, following on my from my discussion about the audits last week is, was sort of discussing this with a, colleague, the other day about it, about that whole process. And it was that there seems to be a lot of confusion, with auditors.

Are they becoming inspectors and and, you know, blurring the line because there is a difference between the two? And, yeah, it’s I does it come down to auditor training? Does it come down to, company standards? Does it come down to that, you know, the audited company or the audited you know? Yeah. Is it the auditee? Yeah. The auditee isn’t willing wanting to push back on the auditor or the auditing’s body because they’re concerned about the audit results, so then they let this fly? Or is it should it be, genuine feedback, and all that sort of stuff? So I don’t know. I mean, I’d like to see standards in everything improve, though. How do we do that unless, companies start pushing back?

And but how do you push back? And, you know, do you turn around and say, well, hey. Hang on. I think that this auditor was, you know, inspecting the premises rather than in auditing the processes. And then the other comment you know, the the the comeback question is likely going to be, well, how do you know that? I mean, what’s your experience? What’s your qualifications? Blah blah blah blah blah. And then alright. So, yeah, it’s just it it is something that, I think that we need to, do more to improve, auditing, auditing, the understanding of auditing, and and things like that. So, it it is it is one of those interesting ones where, you know, are you damned if you do and damned if you don’t?

If you put up with what you’ve put up with, will you get the bad result? Yeah. So, you know, it’d be interesting to hear your feedback. I mean, should we be lifting the standard on orders? And then also too, by the other side of the coin, is that once we lift the standard of the auditors, obviously, they’re going to, and rightly so, expect, you know, the appropriate level of your remuneration, which in turn pushes it back on the auditing body to increase sorry. This the certifying body or what, you know, whatever the terminology is to increase their fees, which in turn comes back to the manufacturer that they have to pay more, which then those fees get passed on to the consumer through an increased product, etcetera, etcetera.

I don’t know. It it’s it’s one of those things. I I don’t know. I I think we’re in a race to the bottom with a lot of this stuff. I know when I did my was it this QF? Training? The trainer, because it was one of those, virtual ones. The trainer read from the workbook. You know, felt like I felt like literally word for word from the workbook. And I mean, you know, I sat in front of a TV screen computer screen, for two days, and I thought, well, you know, I could’ve read this in a day and then still done the same stuff. But, hey. You know what? It said that it was a two day course. So I sat through it because it was a qualification or so the, yeah, the the bit of paper at the end. But, you know, that’s that’s the thing. It’s it’s something that, you know, that could have changed. I mean and so I am I don’t know. As food safety professionals, should we be sticking with this online training, or should we actually get out and go in and have face to face training sessions, whether it’s in house or or out somewhere?

But for that, and I don’t know. Some things you can do remotely sort of online. Others that you can’t, I I don’t know. I I think maybe if the course is more than a day a day or or two days, more than a day, it should really be done face to face because, you know, you’re spending eight plus hours in front of a a computer screen. How much are you missing? How much knowledge are you missing out on, especially, you know, conversations with your peers and everything like that. So it’s yeah. I don’t know. It’s it’s one of those tricky ones. I’ll admit, I’m a Gen Xer. I’m still old school.

PDFs, two pages in, and I’ve I’ve tuned down. So in a bit, you know, you can print the thing as a as a booklet, and I’ll hold it in my hand, and I can read the whole lot. I’ve admitted you know, acknowledge that that’s the way that I’m wired. That’s the way that I’m trained or trained. That’s the way that, you know, I’ve discovered that that that’s how I like train, learning and, reading things and everything like that. I would prefer it face to face where I can see or touch rather than looking at a TV screen. I don’t know whether it’s just something in brain chemistry turns around and says, hey. You You know, everything on this screen is fake. So it’s hard to consider something that you see on the TV screen learning without being there to touch it or hold it or whatever.

But I don’t know. I think that that’s a something that needs to be probably discussed, sitting down on a couch with someone with quite a few letters after their name and paying by the hour. So, yeah, I I think that, you know, it it it’s one of those things probably left for, people that are paid substantially more than what I am and have a lot more schooling than I do. But yes. So, you know, bit of a tangent there. What else? Actually, that’s something that I did wanna talk about. Let me dig up. Yes. Two f website. I think Here we go. Edition ten’s coming up soon. I think that that’s that’s when I think that pops out July or August or something.

I can’t find it. And yep. Missed it. Doesn’t say when it’s hopping out. But, anyway, it it’s one of those things. Comments. It’s only talking about, comments on alright. There’s comments on the code, but you need to register to do that, through the online discussion thing. But, anyway, let’s worry about that. And then later on, I’ll include that link in the show notes if you’re interested in, having that discussion. Current discussion going down horrible. I’ll buy, adding you a little bits and pieces to it. So, anyway, folks, coming up to twenty five minutes. So I think I might end it here.

Before I go, I do wanna talk about this, podcast and the website, which is now live, foodsafety.east, is where you’ll find the website, and information, newsletters, and all that sort of good stuff that you can sign up to. Now this is a value for value production. What that means is that I’m not going to take advertising money. I’m not going to, you know, to, you know, blend in, anything that I’ve done and, you know, deceive you by talking about a product when I’m actually getting kickbacks for it. I have something on the website, you know, to get ad revenues and affiliate or anything like that.

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And then, obviously, there’s the treasure part where, you know, you can contribute financially, to the costs and upkeeps and running of this podcast in the website. There will be more information on that value for a little bit if you go to foodsafety.ist/v4v. Talk about it through there or if you have a look on the page through the support bit. So, anyway, folks, that’s about it, and, look forward to having you join me on the next episode. So once again, my name is Cameron Blewett, and thank you for listening. Until next week, bye for now.