Key takeaways
- The 14 allergens are set out in Annex II of retained Regulation 1169/2011: celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, and tree nuts.
- They must be emphasised in the ingredients list of prepacked and PPDS food, and information about them must be available for loose food.
- Name the specific cereal or nut: 'wheat' and 'almonds', not 'gluten' and 'nuts'.
- A small number of highly processed derivatives, such as wheat-based glucose syrup and fully refined soybean oil, are exempt.
- 'May contain' statements are voluntary and only meaningful after a real cross-contamination assessment.
The 14 allergens at a glance
The list below is the legal one. It comes from Annex II of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, which continues to apply in the UK as retained law, and it is enforced through the Food Information Regulations 2014 and the equivalent regulations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Food Standards Agency keeps an allergen guidance page for food businesses that reflects any changes. These 14 are the allergens you must declare; nothing stops you declaring others voluntarily.
| Allergen | What it covers | Where it hides |
|---|---|---|
| Celery | Celery stalks, leaves and seeds, celeriac, celery salt | Stock cubes, soups, salads, some spice mixes and sausages |
| Cereals containing gluten | Wheat (including spelt and khorasan), rye, barley, oats | Soy sauce, beer, batter, breadcrumbs, gravy granules, some stock, couscous, malt vinegar |
| Crustaceans | Prawns, shrimp, crab, lobster, crayfish, langoustines, scampi | Shrimp paste, fish sauce, some Thai and Chinese sauces and stocks |
| Eggs | Hen, duck, quail and other eggs, in any form | Fresh pasta, mayonnaise, glazes on pastry, meringue, some sauces and dressings |
| Fish | All fish species, fresh, frozen, tinned or dried | Worcestershire sauce, Caesar dressing, fish sauce, some relishes and stock |
| Lupin | Lupin seeds and flour | Some flours, pastries, bread and pasta, especially from continental Europe |
| Milk | Milk from any animal, including lactose, whey, casein, butter, cream, cheese, yoghurt | Whey powder in bread, crisps and sauces, ghee, milk powder in batters and coatings |
| Molluscs | Mussels, oysters, clams, scallops, squid, octopus, cuttlefish, snails, whelks | Oyster sauce, some fish stocks and seafood mixes |
| Mustard | Mustard seeds, powder, leaves and liquid mustard | Mayonnaise, salad dressings, marinades, curry pastes, some sausages and pickles |
| Peanuts | Peanuts (groundnuts) and products made from them | Satay, some curry sauces, unrefined groundnut oil, snack mixes, some biscuits |
| Sesame | Sesame seeds, sesame oil, tahini | Hummus, bread toppings, halva, some stir-fry sauces and dressings |
| Soybeans | Soya beans, tofu, edamame, soya flour, soya milk, miso, tempeh | Soya lecithin in chocolate, vegetable protein, some bread, ready meals and sauces |
| Sulphur dioxide and sulphites | At more than 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/litre of total sulphur dioxide | Dried fruit, wine, cider, beer, some meat products, pickled foods, some soft drinks |
| Tree nuts | Almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, Brazil nuts, pistachios, macadamia (Queensland) nuts | Pesto, marzipan, praline, nut oils, some breads, sauces and desserts |
A few of the entries need a closer look. Cereals containing gluten is a group, and the law requires you to name the cereal: wheat (which includes spelt and khorasan wheat, sometimes sold as Kamut), rye, barley or oats. Tree nuts is also a group, limited to the eight nuts named in the table, and again the specific nut must be named. Milk covers milk from any animal and everything made from it, including lactose. Crustaceans and molluscs are separate allergens, so a dish with prawns and mussels declares both. Sulphur dioxide and sulphites only count above 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/litre, measured as total sulphur dioxide in the food as it will be eaten.
Where the 14 allergens hide
Most allergen failures in kitchens are not about the obvious ingredient. Nobody forgets that a prawn cocktail contains crustaceans. The problems come from compound ingredients bought in a tub, jar or packet, where the allergen is three lines down the supplier's ingredients list.
- Celery is in most stock cubes, bouillon powders and packet soups, and in celery salt used in seasoning blends.
- Mustard is in mayonnaise, many salad dressings, piccalilli, some curry pastes and a surprising number of sausages.
- Sulphites are in dried apricots and other dried fruit, wine and cider used in cooking, some burgers and sausages, and pickled vegetables.
- Lupin flour turns up in some breads, pastries and gluten-free products, particularly those made in continental Europe.
- Fishis in Worcestershire sauce (anchovies), Caesar dressing, fish sauce and some stocks and relishes, so a “vegetarian” Bloody Mary or Caesar salad can declare fish.
- Sesame is in hummus and tahini, on bread and burger buns, in halva and in many Asian dressings and marinades.
- Soya lecithin is in most chocolate and many baked goods; soya protein is in processed meats and some breads.
- Milk appears as whey powder in bread, crisps and sauces, and as milk powder in batters and coatings.
- Egg is in fresh pasta, pastry glazes, meringue, some noodles and many sauces.
- Gluten cereals are in soy sauce (wheat), beer (barley), malt vinegar and malt extract (barley), gravy granules, stock and breadcrumbs.
The practical answer is to hold a specification for every bought-in ingredient and to treat its ingredients list as part of your own. If that sounds like a lot of paperwork, it is exactly the job that recipe software does for you: each ingredient carries its allergens once, and every recipe that uses it inherits them.
Ingredients that are exempt
Annex II exempts a small number of derivatives that are processed so far that they are no longer expected to trigger a reaction. These are the exemptions you are most likely to meet:
- Wheat-based glucose syrups, including dextrose, and wheat-based maltodextrins; glucose syrups based on barley; and cereals used to make alcoholic distillates, including ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin.
- Fish gelatine used as a carrier for vitamin or carotenoid preparations, and fish gelatine or isinglass used as a fining agent in beer and wine.
- Fully refined soybean oil and fat, and certain soya-derived tocopherols, phytosterols and stanol esters.
- Whey used for making alcoholic distillates, and lactitol.
- Nuts used for making alcoholic distillates, including ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin.
How to label the 14 allergens
How you declare the allergens depends on how the food is sold. There are three cases, and most food businesses deal with at least two of them.
Prepacked food
Food packed by one business and sold by another carries a full label. The allergens are emphasised in the ingredients list by font, style, background or colour, and the label also carries the other mandatory information: nutrition, net quantity, dates, the business address and so on. Our UK food labelling rules guide walks through the full list.
Prepacked for direct sale (PPDS)
Food you pack on your own premises before the customer orders it, such as sandwiches in a chiller or wrapped cakes at the counter, must carry the name of the food and a full ingredients list with the allergens emphasised. This is Natasha's Law, in force since 1 October 2021; our PPDS labelling guide explains what does and does not count.
Non-prepacked (loose) food
Food served after ordering, loose at a counter or on a plate does not need a label, but allergen information must be available for every item. It can be written, on a menu or matrix, or given verbally, provided a clear written sign tells customers to ask.
In every case, declare the allergen by its proper name and, for cereals and nuts, name the specific one. Where an allergen appears more than once in a recipe, for example wheat in both the pastry and the sauce, it is emphasised each time it appears in the list.
Cross-contamination and “may contain”
Declaring the allergens you put in is the legal minimum. Allergens can also reach a dish by accident: a shared fryer that has cooked battered fish, a slicer used for both cheese and ham, open tubs of nuts above a prep bench, or a flour-dusted surface. Managing this is part of your food safety system rather than your label, and the starting point is a walk through the kitchen listing where each of the 14 is stored, handled and cooked.
Where a risk cannot be removed, a precautionary statement such as “may contain peanuts” tells the customer. It is voluntary, it must reflect a real risk, and it should never be used as a blanket disclaimer: a menu that says every dish may contain every allergen gives an allergic customer nothing to eat and no information. The FSA's guidance treats such blanket statements as unacceptable.
Building an allergen matrix for your menu
An allergen matrix is a grid with your dishes down the side and the 14 allergens across the top, with a tick wherever a dish contains an allergen. It is the most common way to meet the information duty for loose food, it gives staff one page to check when a customer asks, and an inspector will usually ask to see it. A good matrix also records may-contain risks separately from confirmed ingredients, and carries the date it was last reviewed.
You can build one in minutes with our free allergen matrix generator: enter your dishes, tick the allergens, mark any may-contain risks, then print it or download it. The weakness of any static matrix is that it goes out of date the moment a recipe or supplier changes, which is why Recipee generates the matrix from the recipes themselves, so a change to an ingredient updates every dish that uses it.
Staff training and talking to customers
The law puts the duty on the business, but the conversation usually happens between a customer and whoever is on the till or the floor. Training should cover what the 14 allergens are, where the information is kept, how to check it rather than guess, and what to do if a customer has a reaction. Keep a record of who has been trained and when.
Two habits prevent most incidents. Ask every customer whether anyone in their party has an allergy, so the question is not left to them. And when the answer is yes, check the written information for that dish rather than relying on memory, because the recipe may have changed since the last time anyone looked. The FSA offers free online allergen training for food businesses at allergytraining.food.gov.uk.