Allergen Management Policy

Purpose. Defines how the business prevents undeclared allergens in its products through supplier control, segregation, validated changeovers, label control and training.

1.Scope

This policy applies to every ingredient, product, process and person at the Dandenong South and Shepparton sites. The allergens managed are those that must be declared under the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, including gluten containing cereals, milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts, soy, sesame, fish, crustacea, mollusc, lupin and sulphites.

2.Supplier and raw material control

Every raw material must have a current specification that declares its allergen content and the allergen status of the supplier's line. Suppliers must notify the business of any change to formulation or manufacturing site before the change is supplied. Raw materials will be labelled with their allergen status on receipt and stored in the segregated allergen area.

3.Production controls

Products will be scheduled so that allergen free products run before allergen containing products wherever possible. A validated allergen changeover must be completed and verified between products with different allergen profiles. Dedicated utensils and colour coded tools will be used for allergen handling.

• Schedule from allergen free to allergen containing
• Validated changeover with verified clean
• Colour coded utensils and dedicated scoops
• Rework used only in the same product

4.Label control

Every label and packaging component must be checked against the approved artwork and the product specification at line start and at every changeover. A label check failure must stop the line. Obsolete packaging will be removed from the line and destroyed under quality control.

5.Allergen risk review

The quality manager will conduct an allergen risk review for every new product, formulation change, new supplier and line change before it goes into production. The review will be recorded and its outcome reflected in the HACCP plan and the product specification.

6.Training

Every person working in production, warehouse and quality will complete allergen training on induction and annually, and the training will be recorded.