How can you reduce the risk of food allergens in your supply chain?

Approved Supplier Segregation Separate colour-coded equipment during preparation, cooking and serving Clear labelling of ingredients Medical examination of kitchen staff, Allrergens declaration form

1. Identify your suppliers: Maintain a comprehensive list of all your suppliers, including both primary and secondary sources. This will help you track and manage the flow of ingredients and products throughout your supply chain. 2. Communicate allergen requirements: Clearly communicate your allergen requirements to your suppliers. Provide them with a list of allergens that must be avoided and specify any cross-contamination risks that need to be addressed. 3. Verify supplier practices: Regularly assess your suppliers' practices regarding allergen control. 4. Obtain allergen information: Request detailed allergen information from your suppliers for each ingredient they provide. This

"As a senior F&B director in the hospitality industry, ensuring food safety and allergen management is paramount. We diligently identify our suppliers and their products to mitigate risks effectively. Understanding the origin, processing, storage, and transportation of ingredients is crucial in allergen management. We engage suppliers for detailed insights into their practices, including cleaning procedures, segregation measures, and testing methods. Certification standards and allergen declarations are essential for transparency and accountability in our supply chain."

Supplier Verification and Selection: Conduct thorough due diligence when selecting suppliers and vendors. Allergen Risk Assessment: Conduct thorough due diligence when selecting suppliers and vendors. Supplier Audits and Monitoring: Regularly audit and monitor your suppliers to ensure compliance with allergen control procedures. Allergen Labeling and Documentation: Clearly label all products and packaging with accurate and comprehensive allergen information. Separation and Segregation: Implement measures to prevent cross-contact and contamination between allergen-containing and allergen-free ingredients, equipment, and production areas.

One notable thing to add regarding the suppliers, is to make sure they are trained in both handling and delivering orders, there was many occasions in my old hotel where we received ingredients with missing information regarding allergens and the supplier had minimum information to provide

"Addressing food allergen risks comprehensively is crucial in our F&B operations. As a senior director in the hospitality sector, our approach begins with meticulous supplier identification and extends to stringent label verification. This ensures transparency, compliance, and ultimately, the safety of our guests."

Verify Your Labels: Ensure that all products received are properly labeled with allergen information and double-check the accuracy of labels to prevent mislabeling errors.

"Empowering our team members with allergen awareness is pivotal in safeguarding our F&B operations. As a senior director in the hospitality industry, our strategy encompasses thorough staff training as the third step in allergen risk reduction. It's imperative that our staff understand proper handling, storage, and preparation protocols for allergen-containing products. Equipping them with effective communication skills to address customer and supplier concerns regarding allergens is equally essential. We prioritize continuous education through regular training sessions, manuals, posters, and online courses dedicated to allergen management."

Mitigation the risk of food allergen cross contamination always starts with awareness. Understanding the WHY on allergen control is more important than telling them WHAT to do to reduce the risk allergen cross-contamination. Gamify the training session is a good way to go eg: identify allergens on some random food packaging to expose the employees with different allergen profile

Les équipes sont le premier maillon en contact avec la clientèle, ils sont ceux qui peuvent poser les bonnes questions au bon moment, et surtout être le maillon qui peut faire passer c’est informations jusqu’à la Cusine. Ils doivent savoir quelles sont les différentes allergies et conna?tre les geste de premier secours

Food allergens spreads with lack of information and communication. As a subordinate one should train well their staffs and make them aware of the food and its information. And make them realise how severe this issue is. A well trained staff can do a lot for his/her team by passing the information.

Train Your Staff: Educate your staff about food allergies, cross-contact prevention, and proper handling procedures to minimize the risk of allergen contamination during handling and preparation.

Monitor Your Processes: Implement strict procedures to prevent cross-contact between allergenic and non-allergenic ingredients during storage, preparation, and serving. Regularly monitor these processes to maintain consistency and effectiveness.

Update Your Information: Stay informed about any changes in ingredient formulations, allergen warnings, or supplier practices. Update your records and procedures accordingly to ensure accurate allergen management.

Review Your Performance: Regularly assess your allergen management practices to identify areas for improvement. Solicit feedback from customers and stakeholders, and use this information to enhance your allergen control measures.

All allergies and dietary requirements that the guests might have are extremely important. Constant training, new joiners as well as senior members of the team are in need of it. In my experience, every team need to have a dedicated person that will handle guest's special needs (1 from both service and culinary, coming from F&B background). The persons would take complete ownership of the guest's needs from start to finish. If more people are involved, (everyone with their own levels of understanding and reasoning) there's a bigger chance for a mistake and incident to appear.

Do whatever you think keep on writing, increase your paper work as much as you can. Three things to follow strictly for Allergens in any area. Skillfull cooking practice with the garnish of good knowledge. Clean clear simple label method without using heavy botanical or biological words. Order taker must figerout of any Allergen person, before he starts taking food Order.