Best practice for writing precautionary allergen labelling (PAL) statements for products assessed with the VITAL® Program, with guiding principles, recommended terminology and six worked examples.
Published: August 2025 (Version 5)
Format: PDF, 27 pages
Cost: Free to download
About this guide
This guide shows how to form an ingredient list that follows the recommendations in the Food Industry Guide to Allergen Management and Labelling (FIGAML), using the results of a VITAL® Program risk assessment. It focuses on precautionary allergen labelling (PAL) statements, and is designed as a companion to the Food Industry Guide to the VITAL® Program and FIGAML.
It sets out guiding principles for declaring allergens in a PAL statement, recommended terminology for allergens, cereals, particulates and tree nuts, and worked examples that follow the same format as the outcomes users see in VITAL® Online.
Who it’s for
- Food business operators who have implemented the VITAL® Program and need to write the PAL statement for a product
- Anyone preparing or checking an ingredient list, including the statement of ingredients, summary statement and PAL statement
Important to know
- Use the guide only after you have implemented the VITAL® Program. The recommended statement, “May be present: allergen x, allergen y.”, should only be used on products assessed using the VITAL® Program.
- PAL statements are voluntary and are not part of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code.
- The tables in the guide are a way of explaining each part of an ingredient list. Using the same format on a product is not obligatory.
What’s inside
| Section | What it covers |
|---|---|
| 1. Scope | What the guide covers, how it relates to FIGAML and the VITAL® Program, and what it means by “ingredient list”. |
| 2. Declaration of allergens in PAL statements | Guiding principles covering the content, format and location of a PAL statement; the labelling outcomes from the VITAL® Program; and recommended terminology for declaring allergens, cereals, particulates and tree nuts. |
| 3. Examples | Six worked examples: wholegrain soup, snack bar, mayonnaise, pork and prawn curry rice, batter fryer and cashew kibble. |
| Appendix 1: The VITAL® Program labelling hierarchy | How the labelling outcome is determined when the same allergen comes from several sources or in different forms. |