Why partner with Campden BRI for your allergen testing?

26 March 2025 | Danielle Cawdron, Chief Chemist, and Nick Byrd, Associate Director - Technical Services

With food allergens and incidences of cross contamination from allergens in the food supply chain on the rise, the importance of getting an accredited, knowledgeable and experienced food allergen testing partner to help manage and mitigate this risk has never been more crucial. In addition, food manufacturers need to demonstrate their compliance, before they can put any food on a retailer’s shelves, so finding a competent partner with the necessary expertise to help them with this is vital.

While it can be challenging to manage your food allergens, if you are able to collaborate with an experienced partner, it can pay real dividends for your business.

With over 100 years of expertise supporting food and drink businesses, we know what it takes to successfully manage and mitigate allergen risks and can help you in all areas of food allergen management and testing.

Key considerations when choosing a food allergens’ testing partner

Whether you have been in the food business for many years or you are just starting out, there is a lot to consider if you are to identity the right partner to help keep your supply chain free from food allergens, cross contamination and costly product recalls.

Here are some of the most important areas you need to be thinking about.

Certification and accreditations:

Product recalls due to the presence of undeclared allergens can be an expensive business, so it is essential that any potential partner you are thinking about working with is correctly qualified and certified in line with industry requirements.

For example, at Campden BRI, we hold both the ISO 17025 accredited laboratories and UKAS accreditation standard, which are among the most stringent in the food industry.

Testing methods and capabilities

Beyond certification and accreditations, it is also important to assess the full range of testing methods that your prospective partner can provide and be confident that they will select the right test for your sample requirements.

For instance, routine food allergen testing will be generally conducted using three types of test - plate Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), Lateral Flow Device (LFD, i.e. immunological tests in a lateral flow format) and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests, which we can provide at Campden BRI.

Experience and expertise

Ideally you need a partner with a proven track record in food allergen testing and a deep understanding of regulatory requirements.

For example, we can support food manufacturing clients with our testing and analysis services in a number of different ways including:

• Demonstrating that the controls and procedures that they have in place for managing food allergens are working
• Validation and verification of cleaning to remove food allergens
• Providing evidence for compliance with claims (i.e. gluten-free, milk-free, lactose-free, etc.)
• Assisting investigations into customer complaints
• Determining the food allergen status of raw ingredients
• Supporting quantitative risk assessment – to inform decisions about whether to provide precautionary allergen labelling/information, etc.

Flexibility and customisation

With many food manufacturers typically producing a myriad of different food products and ingredients, the ability of a partner to quickly understand their needs and be able to tailor their services towards them is really important.

For instance, at Campden BRI our clients benefit from our flexible bespoke service. We can provide advice on sampling and the best analytical method to meet your needs, with expert interpretation of results and their implications for your holistic food allergen management system. We can also test for other substances that might be causing food hypersensitivity.

Turnaround times

Food production environments are fast-paced, and this urgency becomes even more acute if you suddenly experience a food allergen cross contamination outbreak. Consequently, you will want a partner with the flexibility and capacity to handle this.

For example, at Campden BRI, we have an extensive range of ISO 17025 accredited methods and are currently extending the scope of our accredited allergen tests.

Data security and reporting

It may sound obvious, but any prospective partner needs to be able to provide you with clear, accurate and secure reporting of your test results.

One way to identify the best providers from the pack, is to examine if they have been involved in any initiatives to raise standards of practice in laboratory testing.

For instance, Campden BRI, established the CLAS (the Campden Laboratory Approval Scheme), which is a leading independent laboratory approval/certification scheme for food industry laboratories, and was created to meet the need for a recognised standard for food, drink and allied laboratories.

There are many benefits of CLAS including:

• Verifies technical competence
• Gives confidence in results
• Assists due diligence defence
• Contributes to other quality systems/certifications (e.g. BRCGS, ISO 9000)
• Experienced, technically competent assessors
• Clear reporting and categorisation of audit findings

Support and guidance

Besides testing a good partner should be able to offer ongoing support including advice on allergen management and compliance with regulations.

For example, at Campden BRI, we can offer the full range of food allergen services, beyond testing and analysis to include allergen management, labelling and legislation and food allergen training too.

In the area of food allergen management, we know that food hypersensitivity (including allergens) can be caused by substances at any stage of the food chain - from ‘farm to fork’. Therefore, through techniques including risk assessment, risk management and risk communication, we can provide advice and support for your specific processes or products, which will help you to implement the most effective solutions to manage and mitigate your risks.

In addition, we have extensive knowledge and expertise in current global legislation, so we can offer you invaluable advice and guidance on best practice and legal requirements relating to labelling and information for substances causing food hypersensitivity (including allergens).

Quality and value add

When you are closing in on a decision about your preferred choice of allergen testing partner, it can be all too easy to become focused on price. However, it is important to think about what extra value and quality that provider can offer, as your reasons for reaching out to them will often be more complex than you first think, requiring further guidance from them if you are to fully mitigate and manage your future risks.

Fortunately, as we have already highlighted in this piece, this is area where Campden BRI excels. Whether it is allergen testing and analysis to more detailed support on food allergen management or allergen labelling and legislation. Thanks to our multiple areas of expertise and cross departmental working, we can consider our clients’ food allergen and compliance needs from all angles, so irrespective of what food allergen issue they have approached us about we can provide them with an effective resolution.

Selecting the best partner for your food allergen needs

Wherever you are on your food industry journey, we hope you have found this blog insightful and that you now feel better informed when it comes to choosing your next partner for your food allergens testing.

Ultimately, whatever mix of experience and expertise you decide on, it is crucial to select the right partner for your food allergen needs, if you are to competently manage and mitigate the risk of food allergens in your food supply chain.

Thanks to the depth of our experience and expertise, and the strength of our multidisciplinary teams at Campden BRI, you can be confident that if you select us as your food allergens partner, we will deliver the results that you need.

Find out more information about our food allergen testing capabilities and wider allergen management, labelling and legislation and food allergen training services.

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