The Expansion of the Hellenic Food Thesaurus; Allergens Labelling and Allergens-Free Claims on Greek Branded Food Products

Abstract

Branded food composition databases (BFCDs) are valuable information tools that meet multiple user needs. Recently, recognising allergies and intolerances as an emerging concern for various stakeholders, BFCDs evolve to embed information on allergens. This study aims to expand the Greek BFCD, HelTH, to include allergen information for its 4002 products. A new file was added to the structure of HelTH, and data were curated to record label information. In 68.4% of products, at least one allergen was present in the ingredient list and in 38.9% at least one allergen in a precautionary statement. Milk (38.8%), gluten (32.7%), and soybeans (17.4%) were most commonly declared in the ingredient list; nuts (18.3%), eggs (13.1%), and milk (12.2%) were most commonly declared in precautionary statements. Allergen-free claims were present in 5.3% of the products and referred mostly on gluten and milk. In general, no statistically significant differences were identified between the nutritional composition of allergen-free claimed products and their equivalents. This study delivers an expanded BFCD that provides organised and detailed allergen information; new insights on the presence of food allergens in branded foods and issues of concern regarding allergen declaration that need to be addressed in order to improve label information.

Ultra-Processed Foods in the Mediterranean Diet according to the NOVA Classification System; A Food Level Analysis of Branded Foods in Greece

“…HelTH is a dynamic repository of food data as presented on-pack, collected through the online sampling of the foods available in the main online supermarkets in Greece, and curated by trained compilers. In its previous version, HelTH contained nutritional composition data for n = 4002 branded foods [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ]. HelTH was recently expanded to include 372 pulse products and 477 plant-based meat and dairy imitations [ 30 ].…”

Food Allergens in Ultra-Processed Foods According to the NOVA Classification System: A Greek Branded Food Level Analysis

“…An additional n = 237 products were excluded because the researchers did not have access to images from all sides of the product’s package. This step is especially relevant for products with precautionary statements for allergens as there is no regulated position on the packaging for such statements and they can be included on any side of the packaging [ 7 ]. Thus, n = 4587 products with complete allergens data were included in the study herein.…”

“…These substances must be indicated on food labels when used as ingredients, according to European legislation [ 6 ]. Moreover, precautionary labels warn of the adventitious presence of these allergens (unintentional contamination by contact with other products during processing, storage, or shipping) [ 7 , 8 , 9 ].…”

“…It follows that, in order for foods to be properly assigned to NOVA Groups, researchers need to ensure access to a detailed product description, a complete ingredient list, and an indication of whether a food is industrially formulated or not [ 28 ]. Such information is not available in traditional food composition databases and access to branded food composition databases is needed to obtain such detailed information [ 7 , 14 , 29 , 30 ].…”

“…Previous studies have examined the prevalence of allergens in branded foods without considering the degree of processing for each food [ 7 , 14 ]. In contrast, the current analysis takes into consideration that not all packaged foods undergo the same degree of processing, hypothesizing that this may have an impact on their allergen load.…”