Food Allergen Management in Australia.

Food allergies are increasing globally, including numbers of allergens, the sensitization rate, and the prevalence rate. To protect food-allergic individuals in the community, food allergies need to be appropriately managed. This paper describes current Australian food allergen management practices. In Australia, the prevalence of food allergies, the anaphylaxis rate, and the fatal anaphylaxis rate are among the highest in the world. Interagency and stakeholder collaboration is facilitated and enhanced as Australia moves through past, current, and ongoing food allergen challenges. As a result, Australia has been a global leader in regulating the labeling of common allergens in packaged foods and their disclosure in foods not required to bear a label. Moreover, the food industry in Australia and New Zealand has developed a unique food allergen risk management tool, the Voluntary Incidental Trace Allergen Labelling program, which is managed by the Allergen Bureau. This paper summarizes insights and information provided by the major stakeholders involved to protect food-allergic consumers from any allergic reaction. Stakeholders include government; consumer protection, regulation, and enforcement agencies; the food industry; and food allergen testing and food allergen/allergy research bodies in Australia. The ongoing goal of all stakeholders in food allergen management in Australia is to promote best practice food allergen management procedures and provide a wide choice of foods, while enabling allergic consumers to manage their food allergies and reduce the risk of an allergic reaction.

Arsenic in rice and diets of children.

Levels of arsenic in Australian and imported rice (n = 36) were evaluated using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for total arsenic and a hyphenated high-performance liquid chromatography ICP-MS system for arsenic species. The study also assessed the daily intake of total As from diets of healthy children (n = 15), collected over three consecutive days. A wide variation of total As levels (range: <0.05-0.42 mg/kg) in Australian and imported rice was found. The mean level of total As (0.24 ± 0.09 mg/kg, n = 10) in the Australian rice was relatively higher than imported rice from other countries (0.09 ± 0.04 mg/kg, n = 26). The mean level (0.25 ± 0.08 mg/kg, n = 7) of dimethylarsenic acid was considerably higher than that of inorganic As (III) (0.07 ± 0.03 mg/kg, n = 7) in the Australian rice. Children's daily intakes of total As varied widely, ranging from 1.7 to 31.2 (11.5 ± 8.9 µg/day), which was comparable to other countries.

An examination of consumer exposure to caffeine from retail coffee outlets.

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the distribution of caffeine doses obtainable from espresso coffee sold by a sample of commercial coffee vendors located on the Gold Coast, Qld, Australia. DESIGN: A cross section of "Espresso/short black" coffee samples were purchased and analysed for their caffeine content using micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC). Coffees were collected using systematic cluster sampling across five major retail centres. RESULTS: Ninety-seven espresso samples were analysed. The mean (+/-SD) quantity of caffeine was 106+/-38 mg/serve with a concentration of 2473+/-1092 mg/l. There was considerable variation in caffeine content. The range per serve was 25-214 mg whilst the concentration range was 580-7000 mg/l. Twenty-four samples (24.7%) contained 120 mg of caffeine or higher and 12 samples (12.3%) exceeded 167 mg per serve. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The number of heavily caffeinated samples differentiates these findings from frequently cited caffeine values and supports similar data recently collected throughout the United Kingdom. As a result, the accuracy of any previous intake modelling regarding caffeine use in the Australian population is in doubt. The present data suggests that the probability of consumer exposure to high caffeine doses is greater than previously anticipated. Greater sample numbers from a broader selection of venues is required to confirm the extent of caffeine content variance within retail ground coffees.