Allergenic Contamination Recalls in Ireland- 2020
Ireland recorded a notable increase in food and allergen alerts in 2020 compared to 2019.
There were 167 alerts in 2020, compared to 107 in 2019. Of these, 112 were food alerts and 55 were allergen warnings, according to figures from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI).
Milk was the most common incorrectly labelled or declared allergen, accounting for 21 allergen alerts. Mustard, cereals, eggs, peanut and nuts made up most of the other alerts.
Top reasons for the alerts were the allergen was unknowingly incorporated in the product, so not listed in the ingredients; the ingredients list or label was not in English; packing of a product in the wrong pack; or failure to highlight an allergen properly in the ingredients list.
Below graph indicates percentage of allergenic contamination recalls in relation to total number of food recalls by FSAI in the year 2020. 22% of all the foo recalls were due to suspected allergenic contamination or lack of adequate labelling. You may note that there is significant cost implications for recall or withdrawal of a product from the market apart from media publishing and loss of goodwill.
