Corrigendum to ‘Food allergen labeling in developing countries: Insights based on current allergen labeling practices in Malawi’ [Food Control 84 (2018) 263–267]

Food allergen labeling: compliance with the mandatory legislation in Brazil

“…Other studies also demonstrates the high frequency of these same allergens. In one of the 505 analyzed products, the soybean was the most declared allergen (approximately 52%) followed by wheat and milk (Soon, 2018).In another study wheat appeared in the statement of 95% of the 105 biscuits and baby food, milk in 64% and soy in 55% of the samples (Mfueni et al, 2018).It can be concluded that the results presented in this study and others results agree with the high frequency of soy and / or food derivatives.…”

“…This study showed that although the resolution was in force for more than two years, 31.4% of the products had some type of nonconformitiesand 12.1% of the products analyzed did not present any kind of consumer warning about the presence of allergens, which may cause a public health problem, given the vulnerability of the allergic population. A study carried out in Malawi with 105 products, including 100 cookies and 5 baby food, showed that none of the locally produced products had the allergen declaration, but 73% of the products imported from South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, India, China and Europe presented the declaration, which indicates that food entering the country contains more information for the consumer (Mfueni et al, 2018). In Poland, there was observed a high level of conformity in 58,3% of evaluated facilities regard to declared allergen information to consumers on the labeling of food products, as a consequence of the obligatory nature of this action in European Union (Dzwolak, 2017).It has been noted that there is a dearth of published data on the effective enforcement of allergen legislation worldwide.…”

“…In the present study, about 2% of the samples presented such nonconformities. A research conducted in the United States showed that some of the participants didn't have knowlegde about the food allergy legislation in the country (Kwon et al, 2020). They believed that all food allergens were reported on the food labels when the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) demand merely the eight major food allergens (Kwon et al, 2020).…”

“…A research conducted in the United States showed that some of the participants didn't have knowlegde about the food allergy legislation in the country (Kwon et al, 2020). They believed that all food allergens were reported on the food labels when the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) demand merely the eight major food allergens (Kwon et al, 2020). Alert visibility is the main point of any allergen labelling legislation, since consumers may find it not readable or sufficient, as in the study of Soogali & Soon (2018), who interviewed 113 consumers andmore than 80% felt that allergens in the ingredient list should be emphasized using a bold or capitalized font or highlighted with suitable background color in Mauritius.Another way to help people with food allergies isusing the word "contains" andmaking labels clearer by specifying the allergen with a parentheses (Kwon et al, 2020).…”

“…The presence of the term "vegetable oil", for example, often does not make clear the origin of the product which can be soy, peanut, sunflower, cotton, among others (Taylor & Hefle, 2001). On the other hand, some people with peanut allergy are not aware that arachis oil is another way to describe peanut oil (Kwon et al, 2020).The same difficulty can arise in the interpretation of labels containing lecithin, gelatin and hydrolyzed proteins (Taylor & Hefle, 2001). Furthermore, in the case of cross-contamination, this information was not available to Brazilian consumers.…”