Food Allergy Factsheets
Severe allergic reactions (e.g. anaphylactic reaction) occur when the body’s immune system strongly reacts to a particular allergenic protein or irritant. These reactions may be caused by food, insect stings and medications.
Representatives from Health Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), and the medical community have identified nine substances most frequently associated with food allergies and allergic-type reactions. These substances are often referred to as the nine priority food allergens and include peanuts, tree nuts, sesame seeds, soy, milk, eggs, fish including crustaceans and shellfish, wheat and other cereal grains containing gluten, and sulphites.
Information for Consumers
Health Canada and the CFIA work together to provide information to consumers and the food industry, and have created a series of pamphlets with information on each of the priority food allergens:
Other information on severe allergic reactions can be found on the Health Canada website in an It's Your Health bulletin.
When the CFIA becomes aware of a potential serious hazard associated with a food, such as undeclared allergens, the food product is recalled from the marketplace and a public warning is issued. These notices are posted on the
 CFIA web site.
Allergen Labelling
The Food and Drug Regulations require that most pre-packaged foods carry a label and that their ingredients appear in a list in decreasing order of proportion. However, they do not currently require components (e.g. ingredients of ingredients) of certain foods and products, such as flavouring, seasoning, spices and vinegar, to be listed on food labels.
Health Canada has worked with the medical community, consumer associations, and the food industry to enhance labelling requirements for priority allergens, gluten sources and sulphite in pre-packaged foods sold in Canada. Proposed new regulations would strengthen labelling requirements and would require that the most common food and food ingredients which can cause life-threatening or severe allergic reactions are always identified by their common names so that consumers can easily recognize them on food labels. The proposed regulatory amendments will be posted in the Canada Gazette in the near future, prior to being adopted.
Allergen Research
Laboratory methods are required to detect undeclared allergens in food. In the early 1990's, Health Canada began a pioneering method development program, which resulted in methods for the detection of peanut, soy, milk, egg, hazelnut, Brazil nut and crustacean tropomyosins. These methods were transferred to CFIA laboratories for use in their compliance program with regards to the presence of undeclared allergens in foods.
Follow this link for more information on the research being conducted by Health Canada's Food Allergen Program
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