When soya isn't soya

Continuing with our look in to food labelling and in particular how manufacturers of food don't always seem to have the consumer (or at least the consumer with allergies) in mind, we continued to press the Foods Standard Agency on a few loose ends that we wanted tied up. In particular in a previous correspondence the FSA had told us that soya isn't always marked as soya it can also be labelled as soya flour, hydrolysed vegetable protein, soy protein isolate, protein concentrate, textured vegetable protein, vegetable oil (simple, fully, or partially hydrogenated), plant sterols, or the emulsifier lecithin.

This had led us to ask the question of whether manufacturers when including something like vegetable oil (made from soya) have to label the product as containing soya.

The response we received was as follows:

"As mentioned in our letter, dated 7 November, it is the responsibility of food manufacturers to clearly label the ingredients used in their products.

However, following evaluation by the European Food Safety Authority, ingredients made from fully refined soya oil and fat are exempt from these requirements because the refining process removes the allergenic protein from the oil and they are considered unlikely to cause allergenic reactions."

So it would seem that manufacturers do still have to declare soya in products even if it is in the form of hydrolysed vegetable protein.

Interesting however that some refined soya products are deemed to not have any allergenic properties... Of course for those with a soya allergy you still have to avoid products that contain soya oil because in our experience it is never marked as to whether it is fully refined so we would have no clue as to whether it was non allergenic or not.

We can't help thinking that food labelling is still not as good as it could be. But the FSA seem to be happy with what we have. It still seems to us that although it has come along way with the introduction of the allergen list in 2005 and the allergy alert service, too much control is still with manufacturers. What do others out there think? If you or anyone in you family has intolerances or allergies, do you think our food is labelled clearly enough? Do you wish to see changes made? What would help you when it comes to food?

For those interested the FSA also included a link to one of their fact sheets made especially for people with food allergies and intolerances.

Click here to download the FSA's Food Allergies Leaflet

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