Allergen Bureau

The Allergen Bureau is the peak industry body representing food industry allergen management in Australia and New Zealand. Our Mission – Consistent, science-based, allergen risk assessment and labelling. The overall objective of the Allergen Bureau is to share information and experience within the food industry on the management of food allergens to ensure consumers receive relevant, consistent and easy to understand information on food allergens. The Allergen Bureau was established in 2005 and operates on a membership basis. The Allergen Bureau’s VITAL (Voluntary Incidental Trace Allergen Labelling) Program is a standardised allergen risk assessment process for food industry. Carrying out a VITAL risk assessment using the VITAL tools – including VITAL Online – assists a food company to thoroughly review the allergen status of all the ingredients and the processing conditions that contribute towards the allergen status of the finished product. The VITAL Program produces a ‘labelling outcome’ that summarises the food allergens present in a food due to intentional inclusion as part of a recipe and where food allergens, present due to cross contact, should be included (or not) on the label in the form of the precautionary statement ‘May be present: allergen x, allergen y.’.