Free Food Allergy Alerts

By Dietitian Juliette Kellow BSc RD

There's good news for allergy sufferers. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has recently set up a free text messaging service designed to alert people with a food allergy that a product may be of risk to them due to incorrect labelling.

Subscribers to the service receive free information highlighting the allergen, the product and where to get further details.

Sue Hattersley, Head of the Food Allergy Branch at the FSA says, "This SMS service ensures that people with food allergies get vital information wherever they are as soon as possible. This new scheme is an efficient way of reaching people whose health could be at risk due to allergens such as peanuts, other nuts, milk or shellfish ingredients used in product that are not properly labelled."

To sign up to this free service, send the text message "START ALLERGY" to 62372. This initial text will be charged at your network provider's rate.

WLR says:

Until now, information about products that have been recalled or withdrawn due to poor labelling, has been provided on the FSA website and via email updates. Now, the use of text messaging means allergy sufferers can get instant information wherever they are.

This is great news as it has the potential to save lives. Currently, between 5 and 15 people die each year due to food allergies, so anything that helps to reduce the risk of fatalities can only be a good thing.