Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has made changes to the legislation for allergen labelling for food products. These new requirements for Plain English Allergen Labelling (PEAL) are mandatory from February 2024.
Foodworks.online Nutrition Labelling fully supports the new PEAL requirements, generating PEAL-compliant allergen statements for nutrition labels.
Note
The desktop software, FoodWorks 10 Nutrition Labelling, does not support PEAL. Foodworks 10 is legacy software and is superseded by Foodworks.online. A migration tool is available for users to import data into Foodworks.online Nutrition Labelling from FoodWorks 10 Nutrition Labelling.
About the new PEAL requirements
Businesses have until February 2024 to comply with the PEAL requirements in the updated Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. Until February 2024, you can continue to use the existing allergen declarations, or you can choose to start applying the new PEAL requirements (but not a mix of both).
For a further 2 years, there is a stock-in-trade period where any food labelled with the existing allergen declarations before the end of February 2024 may be sold for up to 2 years (until February 2026).
Food products labelled after February 2024 must comply with the new requirements.
Changes under PEAL
Under the new PEAL requirements, allergen information must be declared in these ways:
- In simple, plain English terms using the specified required names as outlined in Schedule 9.
- In a specific format and location on the label.
- In bold font in both the ingredient list and in the summary statement.
- With a co-located allergen summary statement beginning with the word ‘Contains’.
- Naming individual tree nuts with their required names per Schedule 9.
- with mollusc and crustacean categories replacing shellfish per Schedule 9.
- With increased clarity around wheat and gluten.
- Declaring allergens present in processing aids.
More information on PEAL
Find out more here:
- Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code: Standard 1.2.3 – Information requirements – warning statements, advisory statements and declarations
- Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code: Schedule 9 – Mandatory advisory statements
- Food Industry Guide to Allergen Management and Labelling (FIGAML)
- Allergen Bureau News 27 January 2021
- Food Standards Proposal P1044
Video Tutorial
This video details the process of updating your allergens to align with the new Plain English Allergen Labelling (PEAL) guidelines after importing your FoodWorks 10 Nutrition Labelling database into Foodworks.online. Click to begin playing.
Note: The above video was created for Foodworks.online Version 1. An updated video for Foodworks.online Version 2 is coming soon.
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