Allergen Scan: What should be taken into account?

Purpose allergen scan

The following questions can be used to test whether a company has considered all relevant allergen issues.

Specification management:

• Are the product specifications available for all raw materials?
• Have these specifications been checked for correctness?
• Are these specifications up to date? Are the mandatory allergens discussed?
• Is information available for all allergen management system suppliers?
• Are the recipes up to date? 
• Are the end product specifications up to date?
• Are the allergens included with any changes?
• Will any allergen changes end up on the label?
• Does this happen before the change has taken place?
• Is there a final check on the correct label information on the finished product produced?
• Is the most up-to-date allergen and product specification information available for external information provision?
• Will new product specifications be sent to the customers in the event of any allergen changes?
• Will the website also be immediately updated with relevant allergen information?

Company allergen knowledge:

• Does management know what allergens are?
• Do the production employees know what allergens are?
• Do the production employees know which allergens are present in the company?
• Does management keep people informed of changes?
• Is there an up-to-date list of allergens within the company, in raw material, semi-finished product, and end product?
• Is this list used in production planning and cleaning actions?
• Are the company rules and hygienic working rules sufficient with regard to allergens?

Quality system:

• Have allergens been identified in the HACCP study?
• Is the transport of incoming and outgoing also included in the HACCP or allergen study?
• Has a layout with routing of the raw material, semi-finished product, and end product been used in this study?
• Is someone from the raw material to the end product with the customer responsible for the allergen process?
• Is this expressly in the job descriptions?
• Are there specific allergen measures in place? Procedures, work instructions, records, and controls.
• Are these measures adjusted in case of change? For example, the order of production.
• Is someone responsible for customer communication regarding allergens?
• Does this person have all the necessary general and company-specific allergens knowledge?
• Can this person also explain the complete allergen system to customers?

Cleaning, disinfection:

• Is the cleaning plan also based on allergens?
• Will this cleaning plan be adjusted in case of change?
• Has the cleaning plan been validated for the absence of allergens?

Monitoring and control

• Is the quality system tested for allergen management?
• Does the company carry out (self) tests for the presence of allergens?