Direito à informação: proteção dos direitos à saúde e à alimentação da população com alergia alimentar

Abstract

This study aim to protect the rights to health and adequate food of the population with food allergy, estimated at about 8% of children and 3% to 5% of adults, arguing there is a need for the provision of information about allergens on product labels, as well as along consumers service assistance (such as electronic websites and phone numbers). It is pointed the interrelationship between the right to health and right to life as well as that between the right to health and the right to adequate food, rights whose effective protection depend on the consumers access to information. The relevance of the topic regarding the right to information about the presence of allergens and feasibility of the proposal of the obligation of allergens labeling are demonstrated through the analysis of existing standards relating to food labeling in Brazil, as well as which treatment given to the issue of labeling of allergens in comparative law. Finally, on the premise that people with food hypersensitivity need to maintain a diet that excludes the presence of allergens, as a way to ensure their well-being and their life with dignity, it is pointed to the State's responsibility to protect the rights to health and to adequate food of this portion of the Brazilian population, with the regulating of the duty of providing information about the presence (or absence) of such substances in food available for consumption for part of the food industry, although this presence give up unintentionally (traces), which depends on compliance with good manufacturing practices for food products and careful risk assessment