Reference no: EM133256309
A retailer produces their own fresh ravioli pasta in a central kitchen for retail and wholesale sale in a line of premium retail food shops. The ravioli fillings vary weekly, so the business owner decides to leave off ingredient labels to save money. Instead the owner provides retail staff with a list of fillings with each delivery. The product lists always include an allergen section listing 'eggs and gluten'.
One week the central kitchen delivers three types of ravioli; a vegetarian pumpkin, spinach and walnut filling, a tomato and beef filling, and a leek and chicken filling. The ravioli are displayed side by side without labels.
A customer enters the shop and picks up a packet of ravioli. Noticing there is no ingredients list, the customer asks if there are any allergens in the ravioli. The sales assistant consults the product list and advises the ravioli contains eggs and gluten. The customer responds they do not have an egg or gluten allergy, but have a nut allergy, and purchases the spinach ravioli.
At home, the customer prepares and eats the ravioli and notices a crunchy ingredient. The customer then recognises emerging symptoms consistent with their allergy and calls an ambulance.
The retailer is later fined $20,000 for breaching the Food Act 2003 by selling food packaged or labelled in a manner that contravenes a provision in the Food Standards Code.
Questions
1. What top eight (8) allergen ingredient did the customer likely react to?
2. Identify one (1) allergen management issue in this scenario.
3. How can the retailer stop this happening again?