Allergen support from Brakes
Helping you protect your customers and your business
As a food business operator, you have a legal duty to provide allergen information to your customers for all your food and drink – and if it’s prepacked for direct sale, you also need to follow strict labelling rules, under what’s commonly known as Natasha’s Law.
You can buy all Brakes and Sysco own-brand products with complete confidence. We control every aspect of the production process, including ingredients sourcing, quality control, packaging and labelling ourselves, so we always know exactly what’s in our products.
For other brands, we rely on information and updates from the manufacturers via access to Erudus, the UK food industry’s central source of allergen, nutrition and technical data, and Nielsen IQ Brandbank, which collates product information from over 52,000 brands worldwide. You can view our full product policy and legal responsibilities here
What are allergens?
What is a food allergy?
A food allergy is the body reacting unusually to specific foods. The immune system wrongly identifies certain proteins as a threat and tries to fight them off as though they were an infection.
No one knows what causes food allergies, although they often occur alongside other allergic conditions, such as asthma, hay fever and eczema. Food allergies can affect people of any age.
Some people experience itchiness in their mouth and throat immediately after eating fresh fruit or vegetables. Known as oral allergy syndrome, it’s caused by allergy antibodies mistaking certain proteins for pollen. It’s generally mild and can be avoided by thoroughly cooking any fruit and vegetables.
Also important to note that certain cereals such as ‘wheat, barley, oat or rye’ contain ‘Gluten’ that some people (Coeliacs) have an ‘intolerance’ to.
Why are food allergies important?
Most allergic reactions are not serious and respond quickly to antihistamines. The most severe type of reaction is called anaphylaxis. This is a medical emergency that can be life-threatening if not treated quickly.
It is essential that you understand the law and comply with it fully at all times. Apart from potentially making someone seriously ill, a mistake risks financial penalties and damage to your business’s reputation.
Which food allergens are covered by the legislation?
To safeguard your customers and your business, you must check the packaging on all products before you use them, including oils, dressings, glazes, sauces and garnishes, to make sure you’re aware of potential allergens. Please note this allergen information doesn’t include any potential cross-contamination issues that may arise in the kitchen.
How we can help
Our packaging and website make it easier for you to keep your customers and your business safe, by giving you detailed, specific allergen information for every product you buy from us.
Where a product contains any of the 14 major food allergen groups this will be clearly highlighted on the ingredients list.
You can then choose to avoid them or take the necessary precautions in your kitchen and provide appropriate information to your customers.
How we display allergen information
To safeguard your customers and your business, you must check the packaging on all products before you use them, to make sure you’re aware of potential allergens. On Brakes website:
- If the product contains any of the 14 specified allergens, these are shown in a distinguished typeface e.g. ‘bold’ within the ingredients list
- There's a separate ‘Contains’ summary of the allergens present for easy reference
- We may also provide a ‘May contain’ allergen statement when we have the necessary information from the supplier
Information and guidance you can trust
You can also download our own Brakes guides to Calories on Menus and Natasha’s Law. For general queries, please speak to your regular Brakes sales contact, contact our Customer Care team or call 0345 606 9090