A Northlander is calling for change in supermarket bakery labelling, after being unable to find an ingredient list for hot cross buns when catering for a house guest with life-threatening food allergies.
Her calls are backed by Allergy New Zealand, which says the lack of labelling is a common complaint, with potentially serious consequences if accurate ingredient advice is not provided.
Dara Walsh, from Doubtless Bay, said she bought the six-pack of hot cross buns from Pak’nSave Kaitāia earlier this month, but found when she got home that there was no ingredient list or allergen disclosure. Instead, the packaging told her to contact the bakery directly.
Because she had a house guest with potentially life-threatening allergies to nuts and shellfish, she needed to check the buns were safe.
A search on the supermarket’s online store also contained no information, saying recipes and ingredients could vary.
When Walsh tried to phone the bakery, no one picked up.
The lack of clear, accessible information was unacceptable in the context of potentially life-threatening allergies, she said.
“Consumers should not have to rely on chance phone calls nor in-store staff availability to make safe food choices.”
Food labelling rules in New Zealand say products made and packaged in the same place they are sold do not need to display a food label showing ingredients, allergens or nutritional information. But this information must be provided on request.
Walsh said this was not good enough and the products should have ingredient and allergen lists printed on the packaging and available online, at a minimum.
“In-house bakeries’ current approach creates avoidable risk and falls short of reasonable consumer expectations, particularly given how standardised allergen labelling is across other packaged food products.”
Walsh said some supermarkets, such as Woolworths, provided allergen information for their in-store baked goods, while most hot cross bun packets also had this information.
“Clearly, some can include this vital information. Why not all?”
Doug Cochrane, owner of Kaitāia Pak’nSave, said ingredient and allergen information was available to customers who requested it. He recommended they ask either in-store, by phone or online.
If the bakery was busy, other staff could help, he said.
“We’re always there to help, just reach out and ask us, we can answer any questions.”
But Mark Dixon, chief executive of Allergy NZ, said the lack of allergen labelling in supermarkets was a common complaint from people with food allergies, despite some of them feeling stigma when raising concerns.
“We have several complaints across all large supermarket formats, but Foodstuffs outlets have featured more than others.”
Dixon said there was still a large number of staff who had not been trained in how serious their ingredient advice was.
Supermarkets should lead by example, he said.
“It is a huge opportunity for them to reinforce their market position, as a champion of the best food management and accurate ingredient knowledge, when serving their local communities.”
The consequences of not providing accurate ingredient advice were, obviously, grave for an allergy customer but also for the outlet and staff member, with breaches to the Food Act treated very seriously, he said.
The close-knit allergy community was also quick to spread information about poor food service if allergen information was hard to find.
Foodstuffs said it sold a large volume of bakery products every day and issues with labelling were rare, but that did not mean it shouldn’t keep improving.
Getting detailed ingredient, allergen and nutritional information onto packaging or online was not straightforward when recipes differed between stores, which were all locally owned and operated, it said.
It was looking to introduce tools to help its stores generate accurate, recipe-based labels and make information easier to access, including online.
A timeframe for introducing this had not been confirmed yet.
“It’s something we’re continuing to work through carefully to ensure we get it right for both our teams and customers.”
Denise Piper is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.