List of 14 allergens UK kitchens must declare

UK food law does not ask you to remember ‘the main ones’. It names 14 allergens, and you have to tell customers when your food contains any of them.

This is the list of 14 allergens for a busy café, pub, takeaway or bakery. It is the same 14 food allergens UK rules use whether you sell toasties or a Friday curry. Read the list, then use it on Monday morning: check labels, record each dish, put the answer in writing, and still have the conversation.

Where the 14 allergens list comes from

The 14 main food allergens are set out in Annex II of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, as it applies in the UK. That annex is the legal list of substances or products causing allergies or intolerances.

If you sell food that is not prepacked (a meal from a menu, a sandwich made to order, a specials board), you must provide allergen information for those 14. In England that duty sits in regulation 5 of the Food Information Regulations 2014. The Food Standards Agency allergen guidance for food businesses covers England, Northern Ireland and Wales. In Scotland, Food Standards Scotland works from the same 14.

There is no unofficial shortlist of 14 major allergens. If an ingredient is one of the 14, and you use it, you declare it. You do not skip lupin because you rarely see it, and you do not fold peanuts into ‘nuts’.

The 14 allergens food businesses must name

Work from these names. The FSA also publishes them on its food allergy and intolerance page. Where Annex II uses a longer name (soybeans, sesame seeds), UK kitchens usually say soya and sesame. Record the allergen, then name the cereal or the nut when that is what the law asks for.

Allergen	What to watch for in a UK kitchen
Celery	Fresh celery, celeriac, celery salt, stock cubes, gravy granules, spice blends, soups and some crisps.
Cereals containing gluten	Wheat (including spelt and khorasan), rye, barley and oats. Bread, flour, batter, pastry, pasta, couscous, pearl barley, beer. Name the cereal, not only ‘gluten’.
Crustaceans	Prawns, crab, lobster, crayfish, langoustine, scampi. Check shared fryers and seafood sauces.
Eggs	Cakes, mayonnaise, fresh pasta, egg glaze, some burgers, ice cream and mayonnaise-based slaws.
Fish	Fillets and specials, plus Worcestershire sauce, anchovy in dressings, fish sauce and some stocks.
Lupin	Some flours, baked goods and vegetarian products. Uncommon on many British menus, still one of the 14.
Milk	Butter, cream, cheese, yoghurt, milk powder, chocolate and white sauces. Check buns brushed with butter.
Molluscs	Mussels, clams, oysters, squid, octopus, snails. Seafood mixes and paella often include them.
Mustard	English and Dijon, mustard powder in marinades, mayonnaise, vinaigrettes, sausages and cheese biscuits.
Nuts	Almond, hazelnut, walnut, cashew, pecan, Brazil, pistachio and macadamia. Name the nut. This is not peanuts.
Peanuts	Satay, groundnut, some oils, snacks and sauces. A separate entry from tree nuts.
Sesame	Burger buns, bagels, hummus, tahini, sesame oil and salad sprinkles.
Soya	Tofu, edamame, soy sauce, miso, soya flour in sliced bread, some oils and meat alternatives.
Sulphur dioxide and sulphites	When more than 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/litre, as Annex II states. Dried fruit, wine, cider, some pickles, burger mix and potato products.

That is the 14 allergens list. If a dish contains one of them as an ingredient, your written information should say so.

Where kitchens mix up the 14 allergens

Peanuts and nuts are two of the 14, not one. A peanut satay is peanuts. A walnut brownie is nuts, and you name walnut.

Cereals containing gluten are not a single box marked gluten. Wheat, rye, barley and oats are the cereals the law names. An oat flapjack and a wheat wrap are different cereals. Say which cereal is in the dish.

Soya hides in sliced bread. Many UK loaves use soya flour. Only drop it if your own label does not list it.

Celery hides in stock. If the cube lists celery, the soup lists celery.

Sulphites are the one with a number. Below the 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/litre threshold they are not one of the 14 declarations. Above it, they are. Read the spec. Do not guess from the smell of the wine.

Lupin is still on the list even if you have never bought lupin flour. If a vegetarian sausage or a packet flour lists it, it counts.

What to do on Monday morning

Keep the 14 main allergens by the pass. Then work through ingredients, not dishes first.

1. Pull the labels for everything you cook with this week: bread, milk, butter, oil, sauces, stock, spice mix, desserts and freezer specials.
2. For each ingredient, note which of the 14 it contains. Use the supplier label, not memory.
3. Build each dish from those ingredients. Include anything you add at the pass: butter on toast, mayo in a roll, a sesame bun.
4. Put the result in writing, where every person on shift can get it. The FSA’s allergen guidance for food businesses is clear that customers need accurate information, and that staff should not guess.
5. Tell anyone who takes an order where that written information lives, and that they still speak to the customer. A QR code on its own is not the whole job. Keep a printed copy as well.
6. When a supplier changes (a different bun, a new gravy), update the ingredient before the next service.

Never tell a customer that a dish is safe to eat. Never call a plate allergen-free. You publish what the dish contains. They decide. If you are not sure, say so and check. If you still cannot confirm, do not serve that dish for that order.

Keep the 14 allergens in one place

The hard part is not memorising the 14. It is keeping every dish honest when bread, sauce and staff change.

Fourteen is built for that. You record each ingredient’s allergens once. Dishes pick them up when you tick what goes in. Change the bun, and the toastie, the bacon roll and the burger follow. The same records feed a QR allergen menu, a printable allergen matrix and counter signs, so the pass and the phone are not telling two different stories.

Fourteen has a longer kitchen note on each of the 14 at the 14 allergens. Use it when a label is unclear, such as soya in bread or sulphites in cider. Fourteen never marks a dish safe, and it does not replace a conversation with the customer. Your business stays responsible for its own allergen information. The software is the dated record you and your team work from.

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