Confidence in allergen risk management
Allergens are a major point of attention within the food industry. Incorrect or unclear information can lead to health risks for consumers and significant impact on your organisation.
With the Normec QRA Allergen Tool, you gain insight into the actual risks of cross-contamination. This helps you substantiate your allergen policy and avoid unnecessary or incorrect precautionary allergen labelling (“may contain”).
Quantitative risk assessment as the foundation
Carrying out a properly substantiated risk assessment to evaluate potential allergen cross-contamination has been mandatory for all products for some time. To accurately determine the real risk, it is essential that this assessment is performed quantitatively.
Only then can the results be compared with the applicable standards and reference values used to assess and justify precautionary allergen labelling (PAL) on product labels.
Efficient and reliable allergen management
In practice, setting up and performing such a quantitative risk assessment is often complex, time-consuming and prone to errors.
To simplify this process, Normec Foodcare Online, in collaboration with Normec Label & Specification, developed an online solution: the Normec QRA Allergen Tool.
This tool supports companies in systematically and quantitatively assessing allergen risks.
3 steps to a well-founded allergen analysis
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1.
Define your processes
Describe the different process steps in a simple way. Assess the risks of allergen cross-contamination for each process step and combine them into the relevant production processes.
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2.
Manage your raw materials
Quickly and easily add your raw materials and complete the allergen information. Raw material management is efficient because changes are automatically recalculated.
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3.
Compile your recipes
Recipes bring raw materials and processes together. Enter your product composition and select the process used to manufacture the product.
Full insight into the calculations
Once the processes, raw materials and recipes have been entered, the tool automatically performs all calculations. Every calculation step is transparent, allowing you not only to identify allergen risks but also to understand and justify them.
The results of the quantitative risk assessment are displayed in three clear tables:
- insight into allergen risks from the production process
- insight into allergens originating from raw materials
- a final conclusion based on different reference values
This gives you immediate clarity on which allergens must be declared and according to which standard.
Suitable for international markets
The tool includes all commonly used international reference values applied worldwide, including standards from various EU countries and beyond.
As a result, the Normec QRA Allergen Tool is not only suitable for the regional market, but especially for organisations trading products internationally. You know exactly what must be declared on the label, where and according to which guideline.
Easy reporting and sharing
All data can easily be processed into a customised report. These reports can be shared with customers, auditors and private label owners such as retailers.
This ensures you always have clear and well-substantiated documentation of your allergen analysis.
Support with compliance and audits
The tool helps you comply with legislation and aligns with international guidelines such as VITAL (Voluntary Incidental Trace Allergen Labelling).
In addition, you strengthen your position during audits and towards customers by being able to clearly substantiate decisions regarding allergens.
Get started with allergen management
Would you like more control over allergen risks and certainty that your labelling is correct? Contact our specialists or request a quote directly. We are happy to help with a practical and well-founded approach.