This is a legacy version of the WELL Building Standard. Please check the latest version here.

Food allergies

Food allergies

Intent: 

To help occupants avoid consumption of or contact with potential food allergens.

If a project does not sell or provide food and beverages on a daily basis, it is considered in compliance with the Nourishment precondition features 38-40 (and 43-44 when designated as preconditions) and is considered not having achieved optimization features 47 and 49 (and 43-44 when designated as optimizations). To demonstrate compliance, projects should simply add a note to explain their lack of daily food and beverage offerings within the 'Notes' column of the project checklist.

Note that all Nourishment optimizations will still appear on the project scorecard and contribute to the denominator when calculating scoring.

Yes, foods and beverages are considered to be provided on a daily basis if they are available to occupants each day. This is irrespective of the frequency of delivery.

Yes, all foods and beverages that are sold and provided must comply with the requirements. This includes packaged and prepared items, as well as all items in vending machines.

Yes, if any food is provided to occupants, the food allergen labeling requirements need to be met for these items. For example, when coffee and milk are provided, milk would need to be labeled for allergens. Visible nutrition fact labels can be used to comply with allergen labeling, or if milk is served in a carafe, it should be labeled as milk.

Foods and beverages prepared or packaged on site can utilize menu boards and signage at the point of decision to convey the nutrition and allergy information criteria. Foods and beverages packaged onsite can also decide to add this information to the packing instead.

The food and beverage labeling requirements are applicable to all projects regardless of local code, however a project team may submit an Alternative Adherence Path (AAP) for review if they believe the labeling provided by the project meets the intent of the feature. The project team may need to conduct their own analysis of the food and beverages being provided to confirm nutritional information.

If the project owner of the Core & Shell project pursuing WELL certification does not sell or distribute food, or provide vending machines within the building, feature 39 and 40 are considered out of scope.

No, the Nourishment requirements are only applicable to food provided by the project owner or provided by a vendor who is under contract with the project owner, which for a Core and Shell project the project owner is the building developer. Tenants within the building do not need to meet these requirements.

If the tenant decided to pursue the New and Existing Interiors or the Retail Pilot certification, then the Nourishment feature requirements would be applicable.

IWBI recognizes the various cultural differences in meal practices and therefore recommends the project to submit an Alternative Adherence Path (AAP) to confirm the project meets the feature intent for the Nourishment concept. In addition, please review the already accepted AAP's for each nourishment feature.

This includes all foods and beverages supplied by the project owner, or by a vendor under contract with the owner, including items sold or provided in the cafeteria, in vending machines, at a coffee bar and items available to occupants in the kitchen/pantry area.

Yes, if the food served in the eating area is provided daily under the direction of the owner, all of the Nourishment preconditions need to be met by the project regardless of where the food is prepared.

If no food is sold or served within the eating area or break area, most of the Nourishment precondition features would be considered out of scope. However, features 41 and 45 may still be applicable to the project.

No, if food is not catered on a daily basis, most of the Nourishment features are considered out of scope. However, Features 41 and 45 may be applicable to the project.