Allergen Fact Sheets help those living with allergies understand how their immune system works and what triggers a reaction, while providing tips to control symptoms.
Your food allergen chart template keeps track of which menu items contain one or more of 14 named allergens (celery, eggs, fish, milk, peanuts, sesame, wheat and crustacean shellfish). Staff should quickly access this data when asked by customers for accurate advice.
The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 (FALCPA)
FALCPA requires food labels to clearly disclose if a product contains one or more major allergens, including milk, eggs, fish (such as bass flounder and cod), crustacean shellfish such as lobster shrimp crab), tree nuts such as almonds pecans walnuts peanuts wheat and soybeans.
Food companies must disclose any allergy-causing tree nuts (e.g. almond, pecan or walnut) or fish species (such as bass flounder or cod) present in products containing them to help consumers identify potentially allergenic foods and stay away from potential contamination risks. Manufacturers also often include “may contain” statements and other precautionary language on packaging to further aid consumers with allergies to avoid food products that contain allergens.
AAFA strongly advocates for policies that enable people with food allergies to easily identify products – including alcohol beverages – which may contain allergens more easily. Unfortunately, labeling requirements do not align with FDA-regulated foods, creating gaps and confusion for consumers.
Food allergens must be listed by their common or usual names on ingredient lists, with parenthetical references to food sources if they weren’t mentioned before the name of an allergen was mentioned. While this law doesn’t cover additives like spices, flavorings, or colorings as much, they must still provide information regarding any known allergens present.
CDC Food Allergies in Schools
Food allergies are immune system responses to specific foods that may trigger respiratory, gastrointestinal tract, skin or cardiovascular responses in individuals. Common allergenic food products include milk, eggs, wheat, soya beans, fish shellfish and peanuts which often lead to reactions like itching lips tongue throat hives nausea vomiting or loss of consciousness symptoms.
School health policies should address many aspects of caring for students with food allergies. Schools must educate staff and students, develop food allergy management plans, and establish safety protocols to detect anaphylactic reactions quickly and respond swiftly when needed.
For this purpose, CDC has designed the Food Allergies in Schools Tool Kit as an aid for schools that wish to implement its Voluntary Guidelines for Managing Food Allergies in Schools and Early Care and Education Programs.
Guidelines set forth by the school encourage staff and students to wash hands prior to eating; ensure classroom food rewards, snacks or party treats do not contain common allergens like nuts and dairy; ensure an epinephrine auto-injector is available when necessary; as well as providing for an emergency plan with an epinephrine auto-injector available when necessary. Parents can talk with schools and their children about food allergies while working alongside schools on individual healthcare plans that include the student’s medical diagnosis as well as recommended treatments as well as a list of food allergens.
FDA Food Allergen Labeling Requirements
FALCPA requires most packaged food products to clearly list major food allergens on their labels, with these eight major allergens comprising 9/10ths of reported food allergies in the US: crustacean shellfish, eggs, fish, milk, peanuts, wheat soybeans and tree nuts accounting for 90% or more reported allergy and reaction incidences in this country. FALCPA also added sesame as the ninth major allergen.
The FDA has issued regulations detailing how companies must store food products at their facilities, including cleaning shared equipment in order to prevent cross-contact between allergens. Their current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventative Controls for Human Food rule provides requirements that manufacturers must abide by in order to reduce allergen contamination risk.
FDA guidance issued in 2025 provides CPG companies with specific rules for labeling the top nine food allergens. Furthermore, it outlines how the agency will decide if new allergens need to be added. Ingredients not containing protein from one of these allergens and highly refined oils processed to remove allergenic proteins are exempt from labeling requirements; however their source must still be identified. Unfortunately, however, the guidance does not apply to packaged food regulated by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service or over-the-counter drugs or household cleaning products regulated by these agencies or pharmaceuticals sold over-the-counter or household cleaning products sold over-the-counter or household cleaning products on shelves today – nor do these agencies’ guidance cover packaged foods regulated by them or OTC drugs or household cleaning products sold over-the-counter nor over-the-counter drugs nor OTC drugs nor OTC drugs or household cleaning products sold over-the-counter or household cleaner products available over-the-market today nor such products covered under USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service nor OTC drugs or household cleaning products not covered under either agency’s jurisdiction nor does its guidance cover either OTC drugs, cosmetics or household cleaner products sold over-the-counter (such as detergent) products sold over-the-counter (ie).
Health Canada
Health Canada is a federal department responsible for overseeing food product safety for Canadians. It establishes rigorous standards, promotes healthy eating habits and fosters innovation within the food industry while aiding international trade to ensure imported goods remain safe. Critics contend that Health Canada and food industries have fallen out due to regulatory capture, which occurs when an organization becomes too close with those overseeing them.
Manufacturers must clearly display whether a product contains one of Canada’s priority allergens (peanuts; tree nuts; soy; egg; wheat; milk; fish, crustaceans and shellfish; sesame; or mustard) with any labelling options that include listing these allergens in its ingredients list or providing a “may contain” statement or cross-contamination warnings.
Some stakeholders voiced concerns that ongoing research in analytical methods might result in greater sensitivity, leading to lower detection levels, thus decreasing the need for “may contain” statements. Health Canada will closely follow developments on both an international and domestic scale with particular attention paid to Canadian data relevant for this matter. In order to balance consumer needs with those affected by Health Canada regulations, an 18 month coming into force period was adopted during consultation; some industry sectors may incur costs as a result of including mustard seeds into food allergen definitions; these costs must also be taken into consideration during consultation process.
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