§ Mr. PickthallTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what measures she is taking to encourage the clearer labelling of food stuffs in order to eliminate risks to people who are allergic to nuts.
§ Mr. SoamesLabelling is only really effective with pre-packaged foodstuffs and we have encouraged manufacturers and retailers to indicate the presence of nuts or peanuts in a foodstuff on a voluntary basis where the EC labelling rules do not provide for it. In the much larger area of food purchased through catering outlets where the problems for people who suffer from this allergy occur, we have alerted operators to the serious nature of the allergy and to the need to have available reliable information on recipes so as to answer accurately questions from sufferers. I am pleased to say that on all fronts we have had a positive response.