What are the 14 allergens in the EU?

Cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk, nuts, celery, mustard, sesame seeds, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, lupin and molluscs, listed in Annex II of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011.

Do restaurants have to write allergens on the menu?

They must make the information available; whether it has to be written depends on the country. Ireland requires it in writing before the guest orders; the Netherlands also accepts verbal information, provided it exists in writing for staff and inspectors.

Do sauces and drinks count?

Yes. An allergen used in a sauce, a dressing, a garnish or a drink makes the dish contain it.

Is a QR menu enough for allergen information?

That depends on your country. A QR menu keeps the information complete and current, but some authorities expect guests to see it without a phone. Ask your national food safety authority.

Since when do these rules apply?

Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 has applied since 13 December 2014.

The 14 Allergens: What Restaurants in the EU Must Tell Their Guests

The short answer

Every restaurant, café and bar in the EU must tell guests when a dish contains any of 14 allergens. That duty comes from Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 and has applied since 13 December 2014. How you give the information, in writing on the menu or by word of mouth with a written sign, is decided by each country. Know your own country's rule, and keep the information complete for every dish, including sauces and drinks.

The 14 allergens

Annex II of the regulation lists these substances:

Cereals containing gluten: wheat (including spelt and khorasan), rye, barley, oats
Crustaceans: prawns, crab, lobster
Eggs
Fish
Peanuts
Soybeans
Milk, including lactose
Nuts: almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, Brazil nuts, pistachios, macadamias
Celery, including celeriac
Mustard
Sesame seeds
Sulphur dioxide and sulphites, above 10 mg per kg or per litre
Lupin
Molluscs: mussels, oysters, squid, snails

A dish "contains" an allergen when it is an ingredient, or part of an ingredient: the flour in a sauce, the egg in a dressing, the anchovy in a Caesar. It is the whole dish that counts, not only the main ingredient.

What the regulation asks of restaurants

Most of the regulation is about packaged food. For food that is not prepacked, the food you cook and serve, Article 44 keeps one duty everywhere in the EU: information on these 14 allergens must be available to the guest.

The same article leaves the means to each country: whether the information must be written, whether it may be given verbally, and how it should be presented. That is why the practice differs from one country to the next, and why a guide written for one country is not a safe guide for another.

How some countries apply it

Ireland. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland explains that allergen information for non-prepacked food must be given in writing, easy to find, and available before the guest orders, without the guest having to ask. It may sit next to each dish on the menu, or in one clearly visible place, on paper or electronically. It covers the small parts of a dish too: sauces, condiments and drinks.

The Netherlands. The hospitality association KHN, drawing on the NVWA's rules, explains that a restaurant may give the information in writing or verbally. If you give it verbally, guests must be told they can ask, and the information must still exist in writing or digitally so that staff, and an inspector, can check it. NVWA inspections have found that many businesses fall short, most often because nothing is written down.

Malta, Cyprus and elsewhere. The EU duty is the same; the national detail is for your food safety authority. Ask them which forms they accept before you rely on one.

Where a digital menu helps

The hard part of allergen information is not printing it. It is keeping it complete and correct: a new supplier, a changed recipe or a seasonal dish can make last month's sheet wrong without anyone noticing.

A digital menu helps in three ways:

One place to change it. Change an ingredient once and every table sees the new information.
Every dish, every time. Allergens sit on the dish itself, so a new dish cannot go on the menu without them being considered.
In the guest's language. A visitor can check for "Sellerie" or "frutta a guscio" in words they actually read.

What a digital menu does not do is change your country's rule on how guests must be able to see the information. If your authority expects it to be available without a phone, keep a printed allergen sheet or a sign as well.

How QRestAI handles allergens

On a QRestAI menu, each dish carries the allergens it contains from the EU list of 14, shown with icons and named in all 12 menu languages. Guests who order from the menu can declare their allergies; the basket warns them about dishes containing them, and staff see the allergies on the order. Ingredients and calories can be shown on each dish too. More on the allergen menu page.

This article explains the rules in general terms; it is not legal advice.