Allergen matrix template for UK food businesses

If you run an independent café, pub, takeaway or bakery, you have probably been handed a blank grid and asked to fill it in. That grid is an allergen matrix: dishes down one side, the 14 regulated allergens along the top, and marks in the cells so staff can see what is in the food.

An allergen matrix template is meant to save you drawing that grid from scratch. Some come as a spreadsheet. Some are a one-page allergen matrix pdf. Some copy the layout people call an FSA allergen matrix. The file type matters less than whether the grid still matches the food you are selling this week.

You can record the same grid with Fourteen instead of maintaining a separate file. Fourteen helps you manage the 14 allergens in one place and publish a printable allergen matrix, a QR allergen menu and counter signs from the same records.

What a food allergen matrix is for

A food allergen matrix works for two audiences. Kitchen staff use it at the pass, and front of house use it when a customer asks about milk, gluten, nuts or sesame, so nobody is answering from memory. It can serve customers too: the FSA’s best-practice guidance lists a matrix displayed on a wall where customers can see it as one good way to give written allergen information, alongside a conversation.

The matrix records which of the 14 allergens you have put in each item. It is not medical advice. It does not tell an allergic person what they can eat. A blank cell is not a promise. Oil gets reused, specials change, and the next step is always a conversation with the customer about their allergy before you take the order.

The matrix also does not replace labels on food that is packed on your premises for the customer to take away later. Those packs need their own ingredients list. Use the matrix to brief staff and to check dishes. Use the pack label for anything that is prepacked for direct sale.

What UK allergen rules actually require

UK law does not say you must keep a matrix by that name. It does say you must provide allergen information for the 14 allergens.

In England, the Food Information Regulations 2014 make it an offence to fail to provide that information; Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own versions of the same rules. The Food Standards Agency explains what this means day to day in its allergen guidance for food businesses.

For loose food (a plated meal, a sandwich made to order, most pub and takeaway dishes), you must make allergen information available. The law allows it in writing, or by telling customers clearly where to ask and then giving them the answer. Since February 2025 the FSA’s best practice for non-prepacked food expects both: written allergen information, readily available without customers having to ask, and a conversation. A sign that says “please ask” only works if the answer is ready, accurate and the same whoever is asked.

That is why so many kitchens keep a matrix. It is a written record staff can stand over, not a substitute for speaking to the customer.

For food packed on site for later (a wrapped sandwich in your own fridge, a boxed salad on the counter), Natasha’s Law applies. The pack must show the name of the food and a full ingredients list with the 14 allergens emphasised. Pointing at a kitchen matrix is not a label.

The 14 allergens that belong on the grid

Any template worth using lists all 14, with the names used in UK rules. The FSA sets them out in its allergen guidance for food businesses:

• celery
• cereals containing gluten (such as wheat, rye, barley and oats)
• crustaceans
• eggs
• fish
• lupin
• milk
• molluscs
• mustard
• nuts (tree nuts)
• peanuts
• sesame
• soya
• sulphur dioxide and sulphites, at more than 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/litre

If a download drops lupin, folds peanuts into tree nuts, or uses vague headings such as “wheat only”, do not use it as your live record. Fourteen’s 14 allergens guide walks through the same list in kitchen language while you build the menu.

Allergen matrix template excel free download: what you actually get

A free spreadsheet is the usual starting point. You take an allergen matrix download, type dish names, and tick cells. An allergen matrix printable sheet is the same idea on paper. Plenty of council packs and training slides use a blank food standards agency allergen matrix: 14 columns, empty rows, your menu down the side.

That can be a fair way to begin. Before you rely on it, check four things:

• The 14 headings match the legal names, including lupin, mustard, molluscs and sulphur dioxide.
• There is space for sauces, bread, gravy, garnishes and “on the side” items, not only the headline dish.
• You can print it large enough to read at the pass.
• A named person owns the job of updating it when a spec changes.

Where a static allergen matrix pdf or Excel file falls down is the week after you fill it in. The fish special changes. The bun supplier adds sesame. The vegan mayo is swapped for one that contains egg. The file on the office laptop is no longer the copy on the wall. Staff trust the wrong version, and you only find out when someone asks a hard question at Friday service.

A food standards agency allergen matrix layout does not update itself. The FSA allergen matrix you might have seen in a course is a teaching tool and a suggested shape. It is not a live record of your recipes, and it does not feed a customer-facing menu or a counter sign. You still have to do that work by hand, every time the board changes.

What to look for when you choose a template

Use this checklist whether you stay on a spreadsheet or move the grid into a tool.

1. The full 14, named properly. If the template cannot show lupin or sulphites, it is not fit for UK service.
2. Dishes and components. A burger needs the bun, the sauce and the cheese marked, not only the patty.
3. Easy edits. You should change one recipe on a Monday without redrawing the whole sheet.
4. Printable and readable. Kitchen teams still need paper. An allergen matrix printable copy at the pass beats a file nobody opens.
5. One source of truth. If the matrix, the counter sign and the menu on a phone disagree, you have a problem.
6. No “safe” marks. A good template never labels a dish allergen-free. Yours should not either.
7. Room for the conversation. Written information supports staff. It does not replace asking the customer about their allergy before you take the order.

Fourteen is built around that last group of points: one set of records, a printable allergen matrix, a QR allergen menu and counter signs. It does not mark any dish as safe, and it does not replace talking to the customer.

Spreadsheet, PDF or a live matrix

Need	Free Excel or PDF	Fourteen
Fill in the 14 allergens	You tick cells by hand	Manage the 14 allergens in one place
Allergen matrix printable for the pass	Print the file, then reprint when it changes	Printable allergen matrix from the same records
Something customers can read themselves	A separate menu to write and check	QR allergen menu
A reminder at the till	A separate sign to write	Counter signs
Specials change on Monday	Edit the file, print again, throw the old copy away	Update the same records and publish them again
PPDS wrapped food	Still your job on the pack	Still your job on the pack: a matrix is not a label

A free allergen matrix template excel free download is cheapest on day one. The cost shows up as time: retyping, reprinting, and checking that delivery-app text still matches the sheet in the kitchen. If your menu is small and almost never changes, a well-kept spreadsheet can still serve. If you run specials, more than one service, or staff who were not in last week, a file with no owner goes stale.

How to fill a matrix on Monday morning

Whatever format you choose, the method is the same.

1. List every item you will sell this week, including specials, children’s dishes and staff meals if you serve them to customers.
2. Break each item into parts: bread, filling, dressing, cheese, garnish, and any oil or stock you treat as part of the dish.
3. Against each part, mark the 14 allergens from the ingredient label or the supplier spec. If you do not know, do not guess. Ask the supplier and write the answer down.
4. Put the current matrix where staff actually stand, not in a drawer.
5. Brief the team in one sentence: use the matrix, then still speak to the customer. If they are not sure, they must not serve.
6. When a spec changes, update the same day and replace every printed copy.
7. For PPDS items, write the pack label from the full ingredients list. Do not point at the matrix and call the food labelled.

Keep “may contain” for a real risk of cross-contact that you have assessed and can’t remove, and name the allergen, as the FSA’s precautionary allergen labelling guidance asks. It is never a blanket warning or a substitute for managing the risk. Record what you put in the food as “contains”, and let the conversation cover the rest.

When a static template is no longer enough

If you have one menu that never moves, a careful Excel sheet can work. Most independent sites do not live like that. Rotating specials, agency shifts and a second copy of the menu on a delivery app are how two versions appear.

If you also want customers to read allergen information themselves, a paper grid at the till is hard to share. A QR allergen menu that uses the same records as the matrix is easier to keep in step. You still need written information available on site, and you still need staff who can talk through a dish. A code on a table is not the whole system.

Fourteen exists for that situation. It is not a lawyer. It does not replace a conversation with the customer. It is the place you record the 14 allergens and publish them as a printable allergen matrix, a QR allergen menu and counter signs. The business remains responsible for what those records say.

If you are tired of redrawing the grid, start on Fourteen. Build it free. There is a 14-day free trial when you go live.