Food allergen management in primary production

Pathway · Primary production

From the source to preventive management

A pathway for producers, technical leads and teams working with raw materials who need to identify risks from the field, prevent unintended mixing and strengthen traceability.

Grains stored separately to support traceability and prevent cross-contact

Three critical stages

Prevention begins before harvest

01 · PlanIdentify field history, neighbouring crops, inputs and shared equipment before work begins.
02 · SegregatePrevent mixing during harvest, handling, storage and transport through separation and cleaning.
03 · TraceRecord lots, movements, interventions and relevant conditions, and pass information to the next link in the chain.

The pathway

Four stages to turn risk into prevention

01 · UnderstandRecognise sources and pathways of allergen contamination that may arise in primary production.
02 · AssessAssess practices related to inputs, equipment, harvest, storage, transport and communication.
03 · ImplementDefine controls for cleaning, segregation, identification, traceability and response to deviations.
04 · VerifyReview records and practices, check that controls are applied and repeat the assessment regularly.

Step 1 · Understand

Academy training

Build the foundations and criteria needed to recognise risks and responsibilities at the source.

Explore Academy

Step 2 · Assess

Primary production self-assessment

Get an indicative assessment, view performance by dimension and identify priority actions.

Start self-assessment

Steps 3 and 4 · Implement and verify

Practical guide

Turn priorities into controls for inputs, equipment, transport, storage, traceability and prevention.

Open the guide

How to use this pathway

  1. Review the training and share the core criteria with everyone involved.
  2. Complete the self-assessment and record the main gaps.
  3. Use the guide to turn each priority into an action, an owner and supporting evidence.
  4. Check the controls and repeat the assessment once they have had enough time to work.

This pathway provides technical and educational guidance. It does not replace applicable legal requirements, specific analyses, control validation or professional auditing where required.