APA News

  • Food fraud: the dangerous allergens lurking in the supply chain


    Allergy sufferers are placed at risk when restaurant ingredients are substituted for alternatives or contaminated by suppliers.

    Former Public Analyst and APA Training officer Michael Walker who also acts as facilitator of Safefood’s Food Allergy and Food Intolerance has co-authored an item in Guardian Professional   highlighting the risks to allergy suffers due to food fraud. An example is given of investigative work in Cumbria which led back to one of the country’s biggest Indian food suppliers, Euro Foods, which was fined £18,000 including legal costs after being found guilty of food adulteration by substituting peanuts for the more expensive almonds when they supplied the catering trade.  However the company successfully appealed against this conviction.

    Police in North Yorkshire are investigating the death of Paul Wilson  in February. It is suspected that he suffered an anaphylactic shock triggered by a takeaway meal. The new food information regulations which come it force later this year later this year, will stipulate that eating establishments must provide detailed information about any allergens contained in their food. This assumes that the outlets are being supplied correctly labelled ingredients. Public Analysts routinely use sensitive immunoassay techniques to test for a range allergens including peanut.