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The 14 Major Allergens UK Businesses Must Declare — The Full List
Every UK food business — a Michelin kitchen, a market stall, a one-person home bakery — has the same legal duty: know these 14 allergens, and be able to tell a customer clearly if any of them are in what you’re selling.
The legal basis
- Set out under the Food Information Regulations 2014 (implementing EU Regulation 1169/2011, retained in UK law).
- Applies to every food business, regardless of size, and to both pre-packed and non-pre-packed food.
- Getting this wrong is the single food-safety mistake most likely to cause genuine, serious harm — it’s treated accordingly.
The full list of 14
- Celery — including celeriac and celery seed.
- Cereals containing gluten — wheat, rye, barley, oats and their hybrids.
- Crustaceans — prawns, crab, lobster, langoustine.
- Eggs
- Fish
- Lupin — a legume sometimes found in flours and baked goods.
- Milk
- Molluscs — mussels, oysters, squid, snails.
- Mustard
- Tree nuts — almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, brazil nuts, pistachios, macadamia.
- Peanuts — legally distinct from tree nuts.
- Sesame
- Soybeans
- Sulphur dioxide and sulphites — used as a preservative in dried fruit, wine and some processed foods, at concentrations above 10mg/kg or 10mg/litre.
What the law actually requires you to do
If your food contains any of these 14, you must make that clear to the customer — for pre-packed food, that means emphasising the allergen within the ingredients list (commonly done in bold). For food sold loose — a market stall, a café menu, a bakery counter — you must provide the information either in writing or be able to answer clearly and correctly if a customer asks directly. “I think it might have nuts in” is not an acceptable answer under the law; you need to actually know.
Why this exists
Current UK allergen law was strengthened significantly following the death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse in 2016, after an allergic reaction to a sandwich whose packaging didn’t clearly show it contained sesame. The resulting legislation, widely known as Natasha’s Law, is a direct response to that case, and reflects how seriously allergen information is now treated across UK food law.
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Frequently asked questions
Do I need to declare allergens even for food I make at home to sell?
Yes — the same 14-allergen law applies to a home food business exactly as it does to a restaurant. There’s no size or turnover exemption.
What’s the difference between an allergy and an intolerance under this law?
The law itself doesn’t distinguish — you must declare the presence of any of the 14 allergens regardless of whether a specific customer has a true allergy, an intolerance, or a personal choice to avoid it.
Can I just put “may contain traces of nuts” on everything to be safe?
Blanket “may contain” labelling on everything isn’t accurate allergen information — the law expects you to know what’s genuinely in your food and communicate that specifically, not hedge with a catch-all warning.