Practical guide

Allergen matrix: what it is and how to keep it current

A grid of your products against the 14 allergens. Not a legal requirement in itself, but the fastest honest answer to “can my daughter eat this?” — and the document an inspector is most likely to ask for.

Reviewed 21 September 2026 against official guidance.SourcesNot legal advice.

What it is

Products down the side, allergens across the top, a mark where an allergen is present. Sometimes called an allergen chart or an allergen grid; the same thing.

Allergen matrix

Example allergen matrix across sample products
Product	Gluten	Eggs	Soya	Milk	Nuts	Mustard
Chocolate Brownie	Cereals containing gluten: present	Eggs: present	Soya: present	Milk: present	Nuts: not present	Mustard: not present
Salted Caramel Brownie	Cereals containing gluten: present	Eggs: present	Soya: present	Milk: present	Nuts: not present	Mustard: not present
Chicken & Pesto Sandwich	Cereals containing gluten: present	Eggs: present	Soya: not present	Milk: present	Nuts: present	Mustard: present
Victoria Sponge	Cereals containing gluten: present	Eggs: present	Soya: not present	Milk: present	Nuts: not present	Mustard: not present
Chocolate Chip Cookie	Cereals containing gluten: present	Eggs: present	Soya: present	Milk: present	Nuts: not present	Mustard: not present

Showing 6 of the 14 allergens — the ones present in these example products.

The value is that it is scannable. A label tells you everything about one product; a matrix tells you one thing about every product, which is what someone standing at a counter actually needs.

Who asks for one

Your own staff, when a customer asks a question mid-service.
Event and corporate clients, who often require one before they will book a caterer.
Environmental health officers, as evidence that you know what is in your food and manage it deliberately.
Schools, care homes and hospitals buying from you.

How to build one

List every product you sell, using the names customers use.
For each, work through the full ingredients list — including the ingredients inside compound ingredients, which is where the misses happen.
Mark presence only. Blank means “not present based on what we hold”, which is a claim you can defend.
Add a key and a date. State whether marks include cross-contamination risk.
Put it where it gets used — by the counter, not in a folder in the office.

Or use the free builder: type your products and ingredients, and it suggests the allergens and produces a CSV.

Keeping it current

Every matrix is accurate on the day it is made. The question is what happens in month four.

The failure mode

Someone reformulates a recipe and updates the label. The matrix lives in a different file, so it does not get updated. Now the label and the matrix disagree, and nobody knows which is right — which is worse than having only one of them.

The fix is structural, not a reminder in a calendar:

Derive the matrix from the same ingredient data as the labels, so updating one updates the other.
Make “update the matrix” part of the recipe-change routine, not a separate task.
Date every version and keep the previous one, so you can answer questions about food you sold last month.

Matrix vs label

	Label	Matrix
Required by law?	Yes, for PPDS food	No
Covers	One product, in full	Every product, one dimension
Read by	The customer, on the pack	Staff, clients, inspectors
Shows ingredients?	Yes, the complete list	No, only allergen presence

A matrix never replaces a label. If a product is PPDS, it needs the label — see what that requires.

Questions

Is an allergen matrix legally required?

No. The legal requirement for PPDS food is the label. A matrix is an operational document — but it is the usual way businesses demonstrate that they know what is in their food, and inspectors commonly ask to see one.

Should a matrix cover cross-contamination?

It can, but only if you say so on the sheet. Decide whether a mark means “contains as an ingredient” or “may be present”, state it in a key, and apply it consistently. Mixing the two silently is the fastest way to make a matrix untrustworthy.

Ingredient-level or product-level?

Product-level is what front-of-house needs — one row per thing you sell. Ingredient-level is what you need behind the scenes when a supplier changes something. Ideally the product matrix is derived from ingredient data, so the two cannot disagree.

How often should it be reviewed?

Whenever a recipe or a supplier declaration changes, and as a full read-through on a regular schedule — quarterly suits most small businesses. Put the review date on the sheet.

Official sources

A matrix is an operational document rather than a statutory one — these are the sources for the allergen list and the labelling rules behind it.

Food labelling: giving food information to consumersGOV.UK
Food allergen labelling and information requirements technical guidanceFood Standards Agency / GOV.UK

A matrix that can’t drift

When the matrix is generated from the products behind your labels, updating a recipe updates both.

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