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Food Allergens

If you run a food business, you must be able to provide accurate information to your customers on the allergens in the foods you serve. Individuals who are not food businesses and sometimes provide food at charity events or voluntary cake sales do not need to follow these requirements.

People with food allergies and intolerances must be extremely careful about what they eat to prevent potentially serious consequences.  Legislation requires businesses to provide allergen information for all foods sold or provided by them.

There are 14 allergens that need to be identified if they are used as ingredients in a dish.  These include:

  • cereals containing gluten
  • peanuts (including oils)
  • nuts (including oils)
  • milk (all dairy products)
  • soya
  • egg
  • mustard
  • lupin
  • crustaceans
  • molluscs
  • fish
  • sesame seeds
  • celery
  • sulphur dioxide

Pre-packed for direct sale (PPDS) allergen labelling

See the links below for information on food allergen labelling requirements for prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) food, changed from 1 October 2021 in England.

These advise businesses of the changes and assist them in understanding their obligations under the new legal requirements when selling PPDS food to consumers. They list the new allergen labelling requirements for PPDS food. It outlines how these will affect businesses and what steps they need to take to comply.

Need Advice?

For details and guidance on the allergen regulations and how they affect your business visit Food Standards Agency Allergen Information and Food Standards Agency Allergen Guidance.  You may also wish to download the documents below.

Advice for teenagers and young adults with a food allergy

Useful tips and advice to support teenagers and young adults to manage their food allergy is available as part of the Speak Up For Allergies campaign.

The Food Standards Agency have produced a short YouTube video to help you understand more about food allergies.

Last reviewed: December 12, 2023 by Qi

Next review due: June 12, 2024

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