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Better handling of allergens

Your current method of supporting allergens is to highlight them in the ingredient list. This works for some allergens, but not others.

For example, Gluten is contained in barley malt, a common ingredient in cereals (like rice krispies). There's no current way to highlight that this ingredient contains gluten. (Note: I consider this separate from may contain traces of gluten... its not a trace, its an actual listed ingredient, it just so happens to not be called 'gluten' in the ingredient list).

This site would be extremely helpful for those with allergies, if you were somehow able to 'check' down a list of allergens present in the product, and then where applicable, associate the checked allergen with an item from the ingredients list.

There should also be a separate checklist for things like gluten free, egg free, cage free, organic, etc.

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Mike Schroll shared this idea  ·   ·  Report…  ·  Admin →
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  • Nathan Sokalski commented  ·   ·  Report

    When entering or editing info, I think there should be a way to, along with calculating based on the ingredients, explicitly mark allergens as Free, Contains, May Contain, Made in an XXX Free Facility, or Unknown. Sometimes these are stated explicitly on the packaging, but I have not seen anywhere to enter it. I was trying to edit a product (Jelly Belly), which displays the Gluten allergen as unknown, but the package says "Gluten Free"

  • pvquallich commented  ·   ·  Report

    Salicylates are an allergen for some which occurs naturally in some foods, it is the chemical also used in aspirin and NSAIDS. Could you add this to your allergen list, also could you highlight the ingredients that contain the allergens?

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Report

    I feel you should list ingredients more appropiate as I have to look for things which are gluten free and milk Free it's very difficult if they're not highlighted

  • AdminStéphane Gigandet (Admin, Open Food Facts) commented  ·   ·  Report

    In the ingredients list, we try to enter exactly what is written on the package.
    Then on our side we can try to some matching for things like allergens. I'm not familiar with malt flavouring. Is it written on the package that this one comes from barley?
    Otherwise we could have a "May contain gluten" label applied when there is just "malt" (and no "gluten-free" label).

  • Mike Schroll commented  ·   ·  Report

    Stephane,

    What do you suggest as the best way to handle http://world.openfoodfacts.org/product/038000219344/rice-krispies-kellogg-s

    I've highlighted 'malt' as gluten containing ingredient (I could've done the full word, 'malt flavoring')
    But because 'malt' isn't in your list (its really barley malt); it didn't trigger.

    Should:
    1. I add the word Barley into the list, perhaps in parenthesis after malt flavoring.
    2. You add 'malt' or Malt Flavoring to the gluten trigger list (probably not a good idea, because some malt flavoring comes from rice

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