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The Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (CAFIA) carried out an inspection with the aim to verify whether food business operators running public catering (restaurants, beerhouses, fast foods, confectionaries, wine shops, petrol stations, etc.) keep their new obligation and provide consumers with easily readable information on the presence of allergenic substances in meals on sale. Within the inspection carried out in July and August, CAFIA inspectors visited 114 types of premises in question. Failure to meet the obligation to provide consumers with information of allergenic substances was detected at 42 cases, thus at 37% of inspected premises providing public catering.

Within these inspections, 55 meals were sampled for analyses in the CAFIA laboratory. The aim of the analysis was to verify whether the meals contained also other than declared allergenic substances. Presence of non-declared allergens was confirmed at 11 samples, thus at each fifth meal sampled. The most frequent detection related to non-declared content of celery (42% of non-compliant samples), mustard (25%), eggs (17%), milk protein (17%) and peanuts (14%). Following cases were concerned:

■ Lesní plody koláč (Cake with forest fruit) - presence of milk protein amounting to 675 mg/kg,

■ Italský salát (Italian salad) - presence of celery and presence of mustard amounting to 1,350 mg/kg,

■ Domácí malinový koláč s tvarohem a domácí šlehačkou (Home-made raspberry cake with curd cheese and hom-made whipped cream) - presence of eggs amounting to 135 mg/kg,

■ Rýžovo-jogurtové knedlíky s jahodovým přelivem (Rice-yogurt dumplings with strawberry sauce) - presence of eggs in the amount higher than 135 mg/kg.

Presence of non-declared allergens in meals is serious, in particular because they can cause health complications to allergic consumers. Detailed information related to single meals with the presence of non-declared allergens is regularly published on the Food Pillory website in Section Meals and Confectionary Products including the place of sampling.

As regards labelling of allergens, the most frequent violation was missing information on particular sorts of cereals or dry shelled nuts which were used during preparation of meals (24% of inspected premises) and missing information on allergenic substances at the premises and failure to provide this information by the staff (10%).

With regard to the results of this inspection, CAFIA will continue to carry out inspections of observance of the obligation laid down by Section 9a Para 1 of Act No. 110/1997 Coll., on Foodstuffs and Tobacco Products – to make the information on allergenic substances used during preparation of meals easily available to consumers.

Article by: Pavel Kopřiva, CAFIA Spokesperson, phone:+420 542 426 633