Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia will hold the 18th annual Food Allergy Week from 23-29 May 2021 to raise awareness of food allergies in the Australian community. This year’s focus is on educating people with food allergy on how to increase safety when eating out and promoting food allergy training and education for the food service industry.
Almost always anaphylaxis, including fatalities, can be prevented. The most common causes of food anaphylaxis when eating out is when the allergen is a component of a person’s meal despite them letting food service staff know about their food allergy, or when a person fails to make staff aware of their food allergy.
To address these two critical factors, a hub of information on eating out for consumers has been created at https://allergyfacts.org.au/eating-out-with-food-allergies. For the food service industry, free online food allergy training “All About Allergens” is available.
The training was developed by the National Allergy Strategy in collaboration with many key stakeholder organisations including the food service industry. The training is fast, easy and free and takes just 90 minutes to complete. Those who complete the training can print a certificate of completion.
Food allergy training in Australia is not currently mandatory for food service workers, but Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia believe it should be.
TRIGGER Food Allergy Awareness is also raising awareness of food allergy during May 2021, having partnered with the US food allergy awareness movement ‘Light it Teal’. Various major buildings and landmarks in Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth, and Launceston will Light it Teal between May 10th and May 29th.
See the TRIGGER Food Allergy Awareness website and Facebook page for further information about the May 2021 Light it Teal campaign.
