Top 8 Food Allergens You Need To Be Aware Of

Food allergies are no joke and as a food producer there’s extra pressure on you to make sure that you properly relay allergy information to potential consumers.  While there are more than 160 food allergens, the Food and Drug Administration has identified 8 main allergens that account for more than 90% of all reactions. 

These such-named “major food allergens” include these products and any other ingredients derived from these products (more information direct from the FDA website is available here):

1. Milk
2. Eggs
3. Fish
4. Crustacean Shellfish
5. Tree Nuts
6. Peanuts
7. Wheat
8. Soybeans

Do any of your products contain any of the above?  If so, even if you’re not required to attach labeling to the product (for example, you sell items in a bakery or farmers’ market) you should still consider alerting customers to the fact that some of your products contain ingredients that may be a problem.  The simplest way around this, as most of us are used to seeing already, is simply to put a sign on or near the products saying “This product contains xxxx” or simply making sure that customers realize that all of your products are made in a facility in which there are possible allergens.

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