A survey of food allergen labeling and undeclared allergen residues in pre-packaged food products imported from Thailand

This product survey aims to critically assess the allergen label status on Thai prepacked food products imported in Australia and their potential risks to allergic consumers through the risk assessment of undeclared allergens. Of 549 Thai products surveyed, 527 products (96%) provided original labels in both Thai and English with no discrepancies. Two hundred fourteen products (39%) stated the precautionary allergen label (PAL) statements in English on the original label provided by the manufacturers. A total of 65 products analyzed by ELISA for egg, milk, wheat and peanut residues revealed that 22 products (33.8%) contained at least one allergen residue, ranging from 1.1 to 806.6 ppm. Fifteen of these (23.1%) contained allergen residue levels exceeding the Voluntary Incident Trace Allergen Labeling (VITAL®) Action Level 2, which recommended PAL statements. Among them, 7 products (46.7%) did not contain PAL statements and 1 out of 8 products with PAL statements (12.5%) had inaccurate allergen information. Based on the VITAL® system, among 13 products with PAL statements that were tested positive, 8 products (61%) had used PAL correctly, and 5 products (39%) had overused PAL. The risk assessment indicated that 10.8% of the tested products were deemed unsafe and highly risky to allergic consumers. These findings, therefore, call for the establishment of a globally agreed framework for allergen labeling using evidence-based risk assessment tools such as VITAL®, particularly amongst trading countries in developing a more trustworthy risk communication for allergic consumers.