The UK Food Standards Agency have recently updated their interactive training tool that can be used by anyone wanting to learn more about food allergy. It is an interactive online version of the Agency's training for local enforcement officers who are responsible for food hygiene and standards.

The training material covers catering and manufacturing premises, and includes references to the current UK allergen labelling and management regulations.

The training tool is divided into sections covering Staff, Ingredients, Packaging, Cleaning, Storage, Monitoring and review, and Production.

Each section has options for providing direct information or interactive, clickable icons to show brief segments of the practices that should be adhered to when manufacturing products containing allergenic ingredients. Further sections of the tool include 'In the restaurant', 'In the factory', 'On the label' 'Talking to Customers', and 'In the body'. The latter is an interactive tool of the human body that provides descriptions of the various symptoms of an allergic reaction.

There are a number of down-loadable factsheets and other resources that are useful references, or users can complete various quizzes to test their knowledge before getting the answers on a number of allergy issues.

To access the on-line tool go to: allergytraining.food.gov.uk