The 14 Allergens, and What You Actually Have to Do About Them

The list of 14 is on every wall chart in the country. What is much harder to find is a straight answer to the question a manager actually has: given how we sell food, what are we legally obliged to do? So here it is, with the law and the best practice kept firmly apart — because a good deal of what is currently being written about the 2025 guidance presents it as a new legal duty, and it is not.

Last reviewed: 20 September 2026 against FSA and GOV.UK allergen guidance (last updated 17 July 2026) and the FSA best practice guidance for non-prepacked foods (published 24 February 2025).

The 14 allergens

These are the allergens specified in food law. The examples are the FSA’s own.

Two of these catch people out regularly. Lupin is a legume that turns up in some breads and pastries and is routinely forgotten. And sulphites are the only one with a threshold — they are declarable above 10 parts per million, which is why they appear on wine, dried fruit and some processed potato products.

Only these 14 are regulated

The FSA is explicit that consumers may be allergic or intolerant to other ingredients, but only the 14 are required to be declared as allergens by food law. That has a practical consequence worth thinking about before it comes up at the counter.

Someone with a serious kiwi or pea allergy is not protected by the list. Your legal duty is the 14; your duty of care, and your interest in not harming a customer, is wider. The right answer to “does this contain X?” where X is not one of the 14 is never “we don’t have to tell you” — it is to check the recipe and answer honestly, or to say you cannot be certain.

What the law requires depends on how you sell it

This is the distinction that decides what your business actually has to do, and it is the one most guidance skips over.

The category is decided by when the food goes into the packaging relative to the customer choosing it — not by what the packaging looks like. A sandwich wrapped at 8am and sat in a chiller is PPDS. The identical sandwich made at 1pm because someone asked for it is non-prepacked. Same shop, same filling, different legal duty.

Natasha’s Law and PPDS

PPDS labelling came from the death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who ate a baguette containing sesame that carried no allergen labelling. The coroner raised the gap in labelling for food prepacked for direct sale, and the rules changed: The Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019 amended The Food Information Regulations 2014, taking effect on 1 October 2021, with equivalent rules across the other UK nations.

If you pack anything before the customer asks for it, you are in scope. The label needs the name of the food and the complete ingredients list, with the 14 allergens emphasised in that list — not a separate “allergens: ” line instead of the ingredients, and not a generic warning.

Non-prepacked food, and what changed in 2025

For loose and made-to-order food, the legal position has not changed: the information must be accurate, available and easily accessible, and it can be communicated verbally so long as customers can see that allergen information is available and how to ask for it.

What changed is that on 24 February 2025 the FSA published best practice guidance for exactly this situation. Its recommendation:

“It is best practice that food businesses should make allergen information easily available in writing for consumers and ensure staff are able to support this with a conversation.”

Written information, backed by a conversation. It is a sensible standard and it is where the direction of travel points.

So do we have to write it down?

No. This is being widely reported as a new legal requirement and it is not one. The guidance says so itself, twice over:

“You are not required by law to follow best practice guidance. While you are not required by law to follow best practice guidance, an approach consistent with this guidance should ensure you meet the relevant responsibilities.”

That second half matters as much as the first. Following it is not compulsory, but it is the FSA’s own description of what good looks like — so if something goes wrong and you are asked to show your arrangements were adequate, an allergen matrix and trained staff is a far better answer than “we always tell people if they ask”.

Our recommendation, for what it is worth: write it down. An allergen matrix costs an afternoon, it makes staff faster and more confident, and it removes the single biggest failure mode — a new or agency member of staff guessing. The guidance applies to England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Scotland has its own arrangements.

One date to keep an eye on: the FSA scheduled this guidance for review in September 2026. If it is revised, the recommendations above may move.

Staff training

Food businesses must make sure staff receive training on allergens. The FSA’s guidance puts the standard plainly:

“Staff should be sufficiently trained to have a conversation about allergens and know where to find the information they need to be able to give accurate information to the consumer.”

Two abilities, then: hold the conversation, and find the answer. Neither requires a named qualification — food law sets the outcome, not the certificate. Allergen awareness is taught within Level 2 and Level 3 Food Safety, which is the usual route, but as we say in our guide to whether you need a Level 2 food hygiene certificate, a general food safety certificate does not close the allergen subject on its own. If allergens are significant in your operation — and in most kitchens they are — treat them as their own topic, with your own recipes in front of you.

The FSA also publishes free Food Allergy and Intolerance Training, along with allergy icons, an allergen matrix template and a poster you can use on your own menus and website.

Cross-contact, and the limits of “may contain”

Declaring ingredients is the legal duty. Preventing allergens getting into food that should not contain them is the operational one — and cross-contact belongs in your food safety management system, and it is where most real incidents happen: the same fryer, the same board, the same tongs, flour dust, a wiped-down but not washed surface.

Precautionary labelling — “may contain nuts” — is voluntary, and it is not a substitute for controlling the risk. Used properly it warns about a genuine, unavoidable possibility of cross-contact. Used as blanket cover on everything, it tells the customer nothing, trains them to ignore it, and will not protect you if the real cause was a dirty board. Decide where cross-contact is genuinely possible, control what you can, and label honestly about the rest.

Answering an allergen question at the counter

1. Take it seriously, visibly. The customer is assessing whether you are worth trusting as much as they are listening to the answer.
2. Check the actual source — the matrix, the recipe, the supplier spec. Not memory, and not a colleague’s recollection.
3. Answer about the dish as you actually make it today, including any substitution the kitchen has made this week.
4. Say what you cannot guarantee. If cross-contact is possible, say so plainly rather than reassuring.
5. If you are not sure, do not guess. Fetch someone who knows, or say no. “I can’t be certain” is a safe answer; a wrong yes is not.

Common mistakes

What this guide does not cover

It is not clinical guidance and says nothing about treating an allergic reaction — that is first aid, and anaphylaxis is covered on our first aid courses. The 2025 best practice guidance applies to England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Scotland has its own arrangements. Full ingredient and nutrition labelling beyond allergens, imports and distance selling are outside its scope.

Food safety training

Allergen awareness sits within Level 2 Food Safety, with more depth at Level 3 for supervisors and managers who own the systems. We run both across our food safety course range, as open course places and as group training at your premises for up to 12 people, and the group route is usually the sensible one for a kitchen team because the session can work through your own dishes and your own matrix rather than generic examples.

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Frequently asked questions

What are the 14 allergens?

Celery; cereals containing gluten (wheat, rye, barley and oats); crustaceans; eggs; fish; lupin; milk; molluscs; mustard; peanuts; sesame; soybeans; sulphur dioxide and sulphites above 10 parts per million; and tree nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, brazil nuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios and macadamia nuts).

Do we legally have to write allergen information down?

No. For non-prepacked food the law requires allergen information to be accurate, available and easily accessible, and it can be given verbally provided that is signposted. The FSA’s February 2025 guidance recommends written information backed by a conversation, but GOV.UK states plainly: “You are not required by law to follow best practice guidance.” We would still write it down — it is the FSA’s description of good practice and it removes the commonest failure mode.

What is PPDS and does it apply to us?

Prepacked for direct sale: food you pack on your premises before the customer selects it — sandwiches made in the morning for a chiller, boxed salads on a counter. If the food goes into packaging only after the customer chooses it, it is not PPDS. The test is the timing relative to the customer’s choice, not the packaging itself.

What has to go on a PPDS label?

The name of the food and a full list of ingredients, with any of the 14 allergens emphasised within that list — usually in bold. An allergen line on its own, without the ingredients list, does not meet the requirement.

When did Natasha's Law come into force?

1 October 2021. The Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019 amended the Food Information Regulations 2014, with equivalent rules across the UK. It followed the death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse after eating a baguette containing sesame that carried no allergen labelling.

Do we have to declare allergies that are not on the list of 14?

Not as a legal declaration — only the 14 are regulated. But customers can be allergic to anything, and “we don’t have to tell you” is not an acceptable answer. Check the recipe and answer honestly, or say you cannot be certain.

Is allergen training a legal requirement?

Food businesses must make sure staff receive training on allergens. No particular qualification is named: the FSA’s standard is that staff are sufficiently trained to have a conversation about allergens and know where to find accurate information. Allergen awareness is taught within Level 2 and Level 3 Food Safety.

Does 'may contain' protect us legally?

Precautionary labelling is voluntary and is not a substitute for controlling cross-contact. Applied to everything it becomes meaningless to customers, and it will not help if an incident is traced to shared equipment or poor separation that you could have controlled.

Does a Level 2 food hygiene certificate cover allergens?

Allergen awareness is included, but managing allergens in your own kitchen — your recipes, your matrix, your cross-contact controls — is a separate duty under food information law. Treat it as its own topic rather than assuming the certificate closes it.

Does the 2025 guidance apply in Scotland?

The FSA best practice guidance for non-prepacked foods applies to England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland has its own arrangements, so check the position there rather than assuming this guidance carries across.

Sources

• FSA / GOV.UK, Allergen guidance for food businesses (last updated 17 July 2026)
• FSA / GOV.UK, Allergen information for non-prepacked foods: best practice (published 24 February 2025; next review September 2026)
• GOV.UK, Introduction to allergen labelling for PPDS food
• The Food Information Regulations 2014 and The Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019

Not sure where your business sits, or what your team should be trained on? Call 0845 838 4643 or use the enquiry form on this page.