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Whether it is pets, eggs, milk, pollen, grass or peanuts, allergies can bring a wide range of symptoms and distress to many of us. Skin rashes, sneezing, itchy eyes and ears, vomiting, coughing and shortness of breath are just some of the symptoms, while in severe cases two per cent of the population experience a life-threatening whole body allergic reaction, which is called anaphylaxis.
Recent estimates suggest that as much as one-third of the total UK population – approximately 18 million people – will develop an allergy at some time in their lives. These figures have increased dramatically in the UK in recent years and continue to rise. In fact, recent studies estimate the rise as approximately three-fold in the last 20 years, giving the UK one of the highest rates of allergic disease in the world.
In line with this rise in prevalence, food allergy is also increasingly widespread and represents the most common cause of anaphylaxis in children. Peanut allergy, the most common food allergy to cause fatal or near-fatal reactions, has trebled in incidence in recent years and now affects one in 70 children in the UK, yet only ten years ago this was viewed as a rare disorder. Symptoms range from mild to severe but can be life-threatening in some cases.
Often confused with allergies, food intolerances are more common and can cause a range of symptoms including bowel problems, depression, weight problems, attention deficit, anxiety, lethargy, chronic fatigue and migraines. Intolerances usually occur when the digestive system is unable to produce enough of the normal enzymes and chemicals needed to break down food and aid digestion, causing unexpected effects.
Hazel Gowland is no stranger to food allergy, having been allergic to nuts and peanuts since 1960 and survived a number of life-threatening reactions. She has worked at national level with the Anaphylaxis Campaign since its earliest days in 1994 and is now its food adviser.
Hazel feels that great strides have been made by food manufacturers in recent times to give those suffering from allergies and intolerances more options: “Ten years ago many of the food manufacturers wouldn’t have given allergies a second thought but now to meet your responsibility to the consumer you have to take food allergies into account,” she explains.
“Consequently some manufacturers are doing enormous amounts of work to protect the supply chain and to communicate any remaining risks to the consumer, whether that is through improving their labelling to the consumer or improving the quality of their risk management.
We work with food manufacturers all the time to assist in this by visiting factories and communicating with them on a regular basis. “The other main area of risk is with caterers, so we also work with them constantly. In our experience very few people actually get into big trouble with manufactured foods, problems and deaths are more typically caused by catered food and in many cases it’s an unrecognised ingredient that will cause the problems.”
Hazel feels there are two predominant ways in which the UK’s food manufacturers are addressing the problem. The first is through ensuring that key allergen ingredients like peanuts are not in a product unless completely necessary and if they are, the risk of contamination to other products is controlled. The other is through the development of entirely new product ranges specifically for those suffering from allergies or intolerances.
“This is a continual process of improvement but we do have very good relations in the UK with the manufacturers,” she says. “We also benefit enormously from the fact that our retailers have such an impact on the quality of private label food and on the continent that doesn’t happen as much.
The retailers have installed a common sense approach to controlling allergens in the factories and keeping them segregated at all stages. They have also undertaken a huge amount of work on the labelling side to make sure that the consumers fully understand what is in a particular product and can therefore monitor the risk.”
One manufacturer that has identified the benefits its products can bring to those suffering from food allergies or intolerances is Lasco. Founded in 1988 in Jamaica, Lasco is one of the Caribbean’s best known companies. Originally starting in milk production, the company has expanded over the last 15 years into pharmaceutical, food, household and personal care sectors and operates throughout the Caribbean, in Latin America and now the UK – creating a subsidiary called Lasco Europe with its own management and production facilities based in Plymouth.
Gerard Holmes is managing director of this European arm of the Lasco organisation. He explains: “One of the big staples in the Caribbean is the Lasco food drink and that’s a powdered format of soya, which is mixed with water to produce a fabulously creamy drink. The benefit of that is it is very nutritionally rich but very cheap to produce in the home because to mix it up you just add water.
The added benefit of that is that because such a high proportion of the consumers out there are lactose intolerant, it means that this is a product that is ideal for that kind of intolerance. Lactose intolerance is the inability to absorb lactose - the predominant sugar in milk - into the digestive system.
If lactose is not absorbed properly, it ferments and this can result in abdominal pain, a bloated stomach and diarrhoea Gerard adds: “Lasco has been making that product as a staple foodstuff product for approaching 20 years and it has been decided that Europe is an area of potential growth in the future. We recognise over here is that we’re very much a convenience driven market place, so we started off with a ready to drink formulation.”
The result of this move has been the development of an entirely new range of flavoured soya shakes, primarily aimed at the kids drink market. Launched in late-2004, Lasco Shaky is suitable for children with lactose intolerance, the shakes contain no preservatives, are wheat and gluten free and are also vegan and vegetarian friendly.
The 250ml cartons available contain seven grammes of Solae soya protein (over 25 per cent of the recommended daily requirement), vitamins A, D and B12 and a third of the required daily intake of calcium. In addition, the Shaky range is also low in saturated fat and cholesterol.
Gerard is keen to stress that the soya benefits are not the only key selling point for Lasco Europe with this range: “There are a huge number of people who will be attracted to our product because of the soya element. Despite this we’re not targeting that area specifically and the mass market as far as we’re concerned is families who are looking for healthier alternative soft drinks.
“The soya market is the fastest-growing category in grocery because of growing consumer awareness of the benefits of soya. Subsequently there are a number of entities investing very heavily in their brands in this sector,” he explains. Looking to the future, Lasco has plans to further enhance this range and provide more products that are suitable for the lactose intolerant market. He concludes: “The plan is to first consolidate the start that we’ve had and we’re very anxious to get the support of the major retail trade.
“We’ve also got plans for increasing the types of drink that we’ve got available and we’ve got a very nice NPD programme coming together, which will allow us to offer more fruit based drinks for adults with these powerful soya benefits integrated into these drinks as well. “We can put a fairly substantial soya helping into each drink and still have a really nice taste delivery, which is of course ultimately the most important criteria.” FC
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