How to link and view allergens and items
As described before, allergens can be linked to either items, unapproved items and BOMs and they can be declared as "Allergen" or "May contain". The separation is clear. An allergen is a proven and measurable attribute of an item, while "May contain" is a possible warning to producers and consumers, based on the risk of cross-contamination somewhere in a production process. Depending on local law, it is mandatory, allowed or forbidden to mention "May contain" information on labels, so the user needs to determine for himself how to conform to local legislation.
On the item page, on the Assembly/Production tab, the button "Allergens" can be used to view the currently assigned allergens to the item. For the Unapproved Item page, the button can be found on the Navigate tab. Selecting "New" creates the possibility of linking allergens to this item, on one condition; the item should not contain a link to a production BOM (either formula, process, co - & byproduct or packaging) and neither should it be part of the output of such a BOM.
The reason is that items that are being "produced" cannot contain allergens of themselves, but can only inherit those allergens from the process in which they are being produced.
When an allergen can be linked to an item, the user also needs to determine whether it is of the type allergen or "May contain". If and when "May contain" is being used, the vendor of these items will or should be able to explain the process in which his product is being created and if there is a risk of cross-contamination and what the possible consequences are.
After an allergen has been added to an item, or when the allergen information is changed, the change can be visualized with the Allergen History page. This page describes the number of changes made to the allergen information of this item, together with the content of the change, the date and time stamp and the NAV-user that entered the change. Depending on the number of changes, it is possible to view the changes from one allergen set to another in terms of allergens added / deleted from the item as well as the type (allergen or "May contain").