Reference
The 14 allergens, and where they hide
Fourteen substances must be declared by law in the UK. Knowing the list is the easy half; the hard half is spotting them in a stock cube, a jar of mayonnaise or a bar of chocolate. That is what this page is for.
Reviewed against official guidance.SourcesNot legal advice.
The list
GOV.UK names them as:
The same fourteen apply whether you are labelling a PPDS brownie or writing an allergen matrix for a menu.
Where each one hides
The obvious cases look after themselves. These are the ones that get onto a label late, or not at all.
Cereals containing gluten
On a label: Wheat, rye, barley, oats (name the grain)
Turns up in
- Plain, self-raising and strong flour
- Breadcrumbs, batter and coatings
- Malt extract and malt vinegar (barley)
- Couscous, semolina, bulgur, spelt
- Soy sauce and many stock cubes
- Oats in flapjacks and granola
Watch for
Name the actual grain — “WHEAT flour”, not “gluten”. Buckwheat, despite the name, is not wheat. Oat products can be gluten-free but oats are still an allergen in their own right.
Crustaceans
On a label: Crustaceans (prawns, crab, lobster)
Turns up in
- Prawns, crab, lobster, langoustine, crayfish
- Prawn crackers
- Some fish stocks and bisques
- Shrimp paste in Southeast Asian sauces
Watch for
Crustaceans and molluscs are two separate allergens. “Shellfish” covers both in everyday speech but is not precise enough for a label.
Eggs
On a label: Egg
Turns up in
- Mayonnaise, aioli, hollandaise, tartare sauce
- Fresh pasta and many noodles
- Glazes and egg washes on pastry
- Meringue, mousse, royal icing, macarons
- Albumen and lysozyme on ingredient lists
Watch for
The egg wash brushed over a pasty is an ingredient. So is the mayonnaise in a sandwich filling — and it brings mustard with it more often than not.
Fish
On a label: Fish
Turns up in
- Anchovies in Worcestershire sauce and Caesar dressing
- Fish sauce in Southeast Asian dishes
- Some Asian stocks and dashi
- Gelatine of fish origin
Watch for
Worcestershire sauce is the classic trap. It appears in marinades, dressings and cheese straws, and it contains anchovy.
Peanuts
On a label: Peanuts
Turns up in
- Satay and many curry pastes
- Peanut butter and praline
- Groundnut oil
- Some vegetarian burgers and protein bars
Watch for
A peanut is a legume, not a tree nut, and it is a separate allergen from “nuts”. Something can contain one and not the other.
Soybeans
On a label: Soya
Turns up in
- Soya lecithin in almost all chocolate
- Soy sauce, miso, tempeh, tofu
- Many breads and bakery mixes
- Vegetable oil blends
- Edamame
Watch for
If you use chocolate, you almost certainly use soya. Check the emulsifier on the tub — some brands have moved to sunflower lecithin, which changes your label.
Milk (including lactose)
On a label: Milk
Turns up in
- Butter, cream, cheese, yoghurt, ghee, buttermilk
- Milk chocolate and most white chocolate
- Whey, casein and caseinate
- Custard, caramel and fudge
- Some breads, glazes and pastry
Watch for
Cocoa butter is not dairy. Coconut milk, oat milk and almond milk are not milk. Butter very much is — and its name does not say so, so the label has to.
Nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, pistachio, pecan, walnut, Brazil, macadamia)
On a label: Name the specific nut
Turns up in
- Marzipan and frangipane (almond)
- Pesto (usually cashew or pine nut)
- Praline and gianduja (hazelnut)
- Nut flours in gluten-free baking
- Baklava, nut brittle, decorations
Watch for
Name the nut — “ALMONDS”, not “nuts”. Cashew is one of the tree nuts named in the rules; coconut and pine nuts are not on the UK list, and nutmeg is a spice.
Full nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, pistachio, pecan, walnut, brazil, macadamia) labelling guide
Celery (including celeriac)
On a label: Celery
Turns up in
- Stock cubes and bouillon
- Soups, casseroles and mirepoix bases
- Celery salt in spice blends
- Some sausages and pre-made stuffings
Watch for
The commonest hiding place is a stock cube. If a recipe starts with stock, read that wrapper.
Mustard
On a label: Mustard
Turns up in
- Mayonnaise and salad cream
- Dressings, marinades, piccalilli, chutney
- Many sausages and burgers
- Curry powders and spice blends
Watch for
Mustard in mayonnaise catches out most sandwich businesses. It is usually there even when the label does not shout about it.
Sesame seeds
On a label: Sesame
Turns up in
- Burger buns and seeded breads
- Hummus and tahini
- Halva and some sweets
- Sesame oil in dressings
Watch for
Seeds on top of a bun are an ingredient of that bun. If you buy the buns in, the supplier declaration will say so.
Sulphur dioxide and sulphites
On a label: Sulphites / sulphur dioxide
Turns up in
- Dried fruit — apricots, sultanas, raisins
- Wine and some vinegars
- Some fruit juices and cordials
- Preserved and glacé fruit
- E220–E228 on ingredient lists
Watch for
Declarable at over 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/litre. Dried fruit in a fruit loaf or a Christmas cake is the usual source in a bakery.
Lupin
On a label: Lupin
Turns up in
- Some gluten-free flour blends
- Certain imported breads and pastries
- Occasionally in pasta
Watch for
Rare in the UK, but it does appear in gluten-free baking mixes. Worth one look at any blend you have started using.
Molluscs
On a label: Molluscs (mussels, squid, oysters)
Turns up in
- Mussels, oysters, clams, scallops
- Squid and octopus
- Oyster sauce
- Some seafood stocks and mixes
Watch for
Oyster sauce in a stir-fry filling is the one that gets missed. Molluscs are a separate allergen from crustaceans.
Naming them on a label
Use the name of the ingredient, and emphasise the allergen inside it. Three patterns cover almost everything:
- The allergen is in the ingredient’s name. “Wheat flour” becomes “WHEAT flour”. Emphasise it where it stands.
- The allergen is not in the name. “Butter” becomes “Butter (MILK)”. The ingredient still has to be named, so the allergen is added to it.
- The allergen is inside a compound ingredient. It is emphasised inside the brackets: “dark chocolate (cocoa mass, sugar, emulsifier: SOYA lecithin)”.
Be specific
Name the grain and name the nut. “Cereals containing gluten” and “nuts” are the category names in the regulation, not what belongs on your label — a customer allergic to hazelnuts needs to know whether your cake has almonds or hazelnuts in it.
Allergen symbols
There is no official UK allergen symbol set. The icons you see on menus and matrices are conventions, not law, and they vary between suppliers. They are genuinely useful on a wall chart or a menu — but on a PPDS label, the requirement is emphasis within the written ingredients list. A symbol next to the name of the food does not meet it.
Questions
Are there official allergen symbols I have to use?
Is gluten the same as wheat?
Are peanuts one of the nuts?
Is coconut a nut?
Do I have to declare an allergen that is only a trace?
Official sources
Everything on this page traces back to these. Where they and we disagree, they are right — tell us and we'll fix it.
- Food labelling: giving food information to consumersGOV.UK
- Labelling guidance for prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) food productsFood Standards Agency / GOV.UK
- Food allergen labelling and information requirements technical guidanceFood Standards Agency / GOV.UK
Let the list do the work
Paste your ingredients and we’ll suggest which of the 14 are in there, and show you the words we found them in.