Food allergen labeling: compliance with the mandatory legislation in Brazil

Food allergies are reproducible adverse reactions mediated by specific immunological mechanisms that occur in sensitive individuals after consumption of a certain food. It is recommended that the allergic person excludes from the diet the food that triggers the allergic reactions. In Brazil, the Col...

ver descrição completa

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Maria Luísa Cunha, Valéria Regina Martins Vieira, Aline Rezende Santana, Lucilene Rezende Anastácio
Tipo de documento: artigo
Estado:Versão publicada
Data de publicação:2020
País:Brasil
Recursos:Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)
Repositório:Repositório Institucional da UFMG
Idioma:inglês
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.ufmg.br:1843/40750
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/1843/40750
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Food allergy
Food labeling
Allergens
Legislation
Rótulos de alimentos
Alergias
Descrição
Resumo:Food allergies are reproducible adverse reactions mediated by specific immunological mechanisms that occur in sensitive individuals after consumption of a certain food. It is recommended that the allergic person excludes from the diet the food that triggers the allergic reactions. In Brazil, the Collegiate Board Resolution nº 26 of July 2, 2015, establishes the requirements for mandatory labeling of the main foods that cause food allergies, by implementing the use of alerts. The objective of this work was to verify if food labels in Brazil comply with this resolution. This is a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out at the Ezequiel Dias Foundation from July/2018 to September/2018. The compliance of food labels was investigated according to the requirements for mandatory labeling of the main foods that cause allergies, regulated by CBR 26/2015. The results showed that 12.13% of the analyzed foods did not contain the allergy alert. In addition, 31% of the samples used precautionary allergen labeling, due to possible cross-contamination by an allergenic food. People who have food allergies benefit from advances in food labeling. However, much still needs to be done to ensure that legislation is duly complied, in order to improve the quality of life of allergic people.