The VITAL (Voluntary Incidental Trace Allergen Labelling) system is an essential standardised allergen risk assessment tool for food producers.

VITAL allows food producers to assess the impact of allergen cross contact and provide appropriate precautionary allergen labelling on their products.

VITAL review:

A VITAL Review Group has been established to oversee the review of the science underpinning the VITAL grid and to complete the VITAL Review. The following document provides the scope for this review.

VITAL Review Scope document PDF (file size 82 KB )

Download VITAL modules:

VITAL Auditor Guide PDF NEW FILE: April 2009 (file size 79 KB )
VITAL Procedure PDF (file size 72 KB )
VITAL Calculator Excel document (file size 525 KB)
VITAL Explanatory Notes PDF (file size 60 KB)
VITAL Decision Tree PDF (file size 30 KB)
VITAL Grid PDF (file size 22 KB )
VITAL Allergenic Protein Levels PDF NEW UPDATED FILE: November 2008 (file size 48 KB)
VITAL Blank Template word document (file size 88 KB)

Download a VITAL example and supporting material that shows the application of VITAL:

VITAL Example One – Condensed Chicken and Vegetable Soup PDF (file size 353 KB )
VITAL Example One – Supporting Material PDF (file size 1.2 MB )

Download VITAL Q&As:

The VITAL Q&As have been compiled from feedback from VITAL users.

 VITAL Q&A NEW UPDATED FILE: 12 June 2009 (file size 88 KB )

Download VITAL Q&As for Consumers:

Download VITAL legal Q&As:

The following FAQs have been provided by Legal Finesse, counsel to the Allergen Bureau.Chris Preston has over 20 years experience in advising governments and the food industry on trade practices and food regulation compliance.

VITAL Legal Q&A (file size 116 KB )

Updated VITAL Allergenic Protein Levels: November 2008

Please note that Total Protein Levels (Total Protein g/100g) for the following foods have been updated: Milk Powder (24.7 to 27), Skim Milk Powder (35 to 36), Egg White Powder (790 to 79), Egg Yolk Powder (320 to 32), Whole Egg (12 to 13), Bream (24 to 22), Mulloway (23 to 22), Mullet (23.2 to 21), Salmon (20.7 to 24), Sardines (23.7 to 22), Sesame Seeds (20 to 22), Hazelnut (14 to 15), Pistachio (19 to 20), Crab (12.6 to 15) and Prawn (23.7 to 17). 

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Food allergens may be present in a food due to intentional inclusion as part of a recipe, allergens but may also be present due to unintentional cross-contact. This can occur at any point in the supply chain due to the type of ingredients used or through the use of shared equipment and processes during manufacture.

Even under conditions of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) cross-contact may be difficult to eliminate entirely, leading manufacturers to use precautionary advisory statements to advise allergic consumers.

VITAL was developed to make a single simple standardised precautionary statement available to assist food producers in presenting allergen advice consistently for allergic consumers.

VITAL not only assists food producers in assessing the potential impact of allergen cross contact in each of their products but also specifies a particular precautionary allergen statement to be used according to the level of cross contact identified.

VITAL allows the assessment of likely sources of allergen cross contact from raw materials and the processing environment, plus an evaluation of the amount present and a review of the ability to reduce the allergenic material from all contributing sources.

VITAL ALSO provides for ongoing monitoring and verification of the risk assessment process to ensure any changes to the level of risk are acted upon without delay.

Thank you for using the VITAL Procedure.

We would really appreciate if you could please take a few minutes to provide feedback in order for us to improve the process.