Health Victoria presents results of allergen awareness pilot

Following the Ilhan Food Allergy Conference in November 2007, the Minister for Health Victoria funded a pilot program involving local councils to educate hospitality staff about food allergens. The program took place in Melbourne and Ballarat in July and September 2009, in co-operation with the respective City Councils. A report on the outcomes of the pilot study is now available.

A working party, chaired by Dr John Carnie from the Department of Health Victoria, was established to develop the methodology and preside over the conduct of the pilot program. Representatives from Restaurant and Catering Victoria, The Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy, Clubs Victoria, Australian Hotels Association, Anaphylaxis Australia, Ilhan Foundation and Coeliac Society of Victoria were also included in the working party, which met throughout 2008 and 2009.

A series of food allergy information resources were distributed to over 4000 food businesses in Melbourne CBD and Ballarat, along with the offer of formal training for interested persons. A pre-test questionnaire was also distributed to the food businesses.

In the final stage of the pilot program, in late 2009, all food businesses in the pilot sites were sent a post-test questionnaire and educational materials. The pre-test and post-test were designed to evaluate the effects of training programs and education materials.

Overall the food businesses that responded to the questionnaires had a good level of knowledge of food allergens to begin with, and formal training and distribution of information materials achieved marginal improvements in the knowledge of the respondents. The average food allergen knowledge of the food businesses was unchanged by the training project. However, based on face-to-face conversation with the trainer and responses on post-training feedback forms, the intensive food allergen training undertaken by 193 food business was found to be very useful by participants.

The program report and several other resources can be downloaded from the Health Victoria website: www.health.vic.gov.au