Onions

As food and cooking habits changes and new products are introduced, we sometimes need to reconsider what is “intended use” and what precautions should be taken to ensure we deliver safe food products to the consumers.

Within the last year I have come across two examples where intended use and labeling had to be re-considered or changed.

One case being a Novel Food product, intended for bakery usage - but where we had to reconsider the labeling due to “raw food baking” as a potential risk. The other case concerns the intended use of a plant based meat alternatives and the risk for consumers to use it as a ready to eat product, where several manufacturers decided to change their labels based on my enquiry on this matter.

The conclusion is that for each type of food being brought to the market it is important to consider foreseeable use and foreseeable abuse prior to risk assessments and labeling of foods – based on new trends and habits among today’s consumers.

Further description of the cases can be found in this short article on intended use and food safety labeling.