Learn about the latest updates with the National School Food Program and which provinces are on board. Discover our advocacy efforts across foodservice, food labelling, healthcare, and with educators. Plus, find out about the Canadian licensing rights to neffy® epinephrine nasal spray.
Advocacy: Engaging the provinces on the new National School Food Program
Following the federal government’s announcement earlier this year of a National School Food Program, four provinces—Ontario, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland & Labrador—have now committed to participate and expand the program to reach more students.
To ensure these programs are accessible to all students, including those with food allergy, we advocated with the federal government to incorporate food allergy as a key consideration when implementing school food programs. This request was successfully included in the federal framework shared with the provinces.
Work is now being initiated on the best path forward to implement these programs. As part of our ongoing advocacy, we are now directing our efforts toward the provinces, urging them to implement measures that will allow students with food allergy to safely participate in these school food programs.
We immediately reached out to each of the provinces that have signed up and offered our support to help educate school staff and foodservice providers on best practices for minimizing risks to students with food allergy.
We would like to thank the provincial governments who have joined the National School Food Program to help provide safe, and nutritious food to all students!
We’ll continue to keep you updated as our discussions proceed. You can count on us to ensure your voice is at the table.
Advocacy: Making food allergy a priority with foodservice
In November, we attended the Canadian Restaurant Investment & Leadership Summit, engaging with over 200 CEOs and executives from leading foodservice brands and other industry experts.
We shared our research report, Recipe for Success, and our Think Food Allergy resources with this audience to help build awareness of the importance of food allergy and how to better support this community.
As a part of our outreach to foodservice, we also featured our report and resources in digital and print news articles in Vancouver and Toronto in November and December. The article showcases how food allergy is a game-changer for restaurants and why they benefit from serving this community.
Read the article below and check out our report and foodservice resources.
Advocacy: Working with industry on access to accurate ingredient labelling
As part of our ongoing commitment to collaborate with the food industry and government on issues related to accurate food labelling and best practices for allergen management, we represented the community at national and global food safety meetings held last month.
Food Industry Council meeting
At our annual Food Industry Council meeting in Toronto, we brought together leading allergen management experts from the Canadian food industry to continue our work towards advancing allergen management best practices in food manufacturing.
This gathering allowed us to share current challenges in food allergen labelling and explore potential paths forward to better help Canadians make informed food choices.
In addition to having representatives from Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, we were honoured to have international food allergy experts at our meeting, including:
- Jasmin Lacis-Lee, president of Australia’s Allergen Bureau
- Marjan van Ravenhorst from Netherland’s Allergenen Consultancy
- Neil Buck from ILSI Europe
- Dr. Samuel Godefroy from Université Laval
We look forward to continuing our work with the Council on addressing access to accurate ingredient information and the use of “may contain” statements.
Codex Committee on food labelling
We participated in the 48th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling in Quebec City last month. Our Director of Food Safety & Regulatory Affairs, Beatrice Povolo, was selected to be a delegate with the Health Canada delegation. Codex develops internationally recognized standards, codes of practice, guidelines, and other recommendations relating to food, food production, and food safety.
This meeting, attended by delegates from over 40 countries including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), made significant progress on global allergen labelling standards, use of technology and e-commerce in labelling, and precautionary allergen labelling (“may contain” statements). As a delegate, we were able to meet with global food safety experts, as well as participate in the consultation process on these important issues.
As the only Canadian food allergy patient association in attendance, we joined our American and European counterparts to collectively provide the patient voice and provide our recommendations on how to improve current food allergen labelling standards to help those with food allergy make safe and more informed choices.
Advocacy: Elevating food allergy and anaphylaxis amongst healthcare professionals
With only a little over 300 allergists across Canada and over 3 million Canadians impacted, many Canadians rely on family doctors and paediatricians for their allergy care. That’s why we prioritize reaching out to other healthcare professionals throughout the year to provide critical information and resources so they can better support their patients impacted by food allergy.
We participated in national healthcare conferences, like the Rural and Remote Medicine Conference, which brought together hundreds of rural physicians from across the country. At this conference, Ranjit Dhanjal, our Vice President, and Dr. Wade Watson presented an informative session on “Navigating IgE and non-IgE-mediated food allergy”. At the Canadian Association of Pharmacy Technicians conference, Jennifer Gerdts, our Executive Director, and Dr. Harold Kim spoke to hundreds on the topic of “Food allergy, anaphylaxis and treating with epinephrine.”
At the conferences, we ensure that healthcare professionals receive our materials so they become informed and can share these resources with patients. We also reached over 22,000 doctors nationally and shared our resources through direct mail and email.
We also participate in national and global conferences with allergists, researchers, and clinicians to ensure the patient voice is represented, like the Global Forum on Anaphylaxis and Food Allergy (Ga2LEN) where we spoke about the patient journey and the need for treatment options, and the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (CSACI) annual conference, among others.
Our efforts within healthcare help to elevate food allergy and the risk of anaphylaxis so all Canadians impacted by this medical condition are better supported.
Advocacy: Building knowledge and inclusivity in classrooms
This fall, we launched a campaign to promote our All About Food Allergy student program with educators – we achieved a whopping 3.5 million impressions, meaning our content was displayed that many times!
This campaign focused on creating awareness of the program and how educators can build knowledgeable and inclusive classrooms. We were able to strengthen our presence in the education sector by building relationships with key influencers, collaborate with education focused publications, and reinforce our leadership through media interviews.
Check out the highlights of our campaign, including two amazing posts by education influencers, and an article in Canadian Teacher Magazine.
Sarah is a science educator, focusing on STEM.
Watch her video where she talks about the benefits of our program and integrating it in her STEM camps.
Margaret is an elementary school teacher who provides educators with practical resources.
Watch her video where she speaks to the importance of this program and how teachers can drive inclusivity.
Article: Setting a Place for EveryoneRead our article in Canadian Teacher magazine that talks about nourishing minds and feeding inclusivity.
Research: ALK licenses rights to neffy® epinephrine nasal spray
ALK-Abelló has entered into an agreement with ARS Pharmaceuticals for the global rights to neffy® epinephrine nasal spray in Canada, Europe and other markets outside the U.S.
ARS Pharma retains all rights to neffy in the U.S., and there are no changes to its existing partnerships in Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand.
ARS Pharma plans to file for regulatory approval in Canada by the end of 2024.
We’ll continue to keep you updated on the news about neffy and it’s availability in Canada.
Tags: AAFA, Codex Committee, conferences, Food Industry Council, foodservice, ingredient labelling, National School Food Program, neffy