Restaurant Allergen Labeling: Guide to the 14 EU Allergens (2026)

EU food allergen regulations require restaurants to clearly communicate the presence of 14 specific allergens in every dish. Non-compliance carries fines up to €5,000 and serious liability in the event of a customer reaction. This guide covers what the rules require, which allergens must be declared, and how to manage compliance efficiently.

What the Law Requires

EU Regulation 1169/2011 requires food businesses to provide allergen information for all 14 major allergens present in any dish. This applies to restaurants, cafes, bars, food trucks, and catering businesses across the EU, UK, and many other countries following EU food law standards.

The information must be available to customers before they order — not just if they ask. It must be consistent with what is actually served. And it must be updated whenever a recipe changes.

The 14 EU Allergens Every Restaurant Must Declare

Cereals containing gluten — wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt, and their hybridised strains. Crustaceans — shrimp, crab, lobster, crayfish. Eggs — from all bird species. Fish — all fish species. Peanuts — also called groundnuts. Soybeans — including soy flour, soy milk, tofu. Milk — including lactose, dairy cream, butter, and cheese. Nuts — almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, Brazil nuts, pistachio, macadamia nuts. Celery — including celeriac and celery seed. Mustard — including mustard leaf, seeds, and paste. Sesame seeds — including tahini. Sulphur dioxide and sulphites — present in wine, dried fruit, and preserved foods when above 10mg/kg. Lupin — lupin flour is increasingly common in gluten-free baked goods. Molluscs — mussels, oysters, squid, octopus, scallops, snails.

Common Compliance Mistakes

Many restaurants make the same errors. Cross-contamination is often undisclosed — if your kitchen handles nuts, customers with nut allergies need to know this even if the dish itself contains no nuts as a declared ingredient. Updating menus when suppliers change ingredients is frequently missed. Verbal-only disclosures (relying on staff memory) are not a reliable or legally compliant system.

Why Paper Menus Make Allergen Compliance Difficult

Every time a recipe changes — different supplier, substituted ingredient, new dish added — the printed menu becomes inaccurate. Reprinting menus every time an allergen changes is costly. Restaurants often delay updates, which creates a compliance gap. Kitchen staff turnover means allergen knowledge does not transfer reliably.

How Digital Menus Solve the Allergen Problem

A digital menu makes allergen compliance automatic. Each menu item has a dedicated allergen field where you select all applicable allergens from the 14 required by EU law. These are displayed as icons on the customer-facing menu — every customer sees them every time, without any staff involvement.

When a recipe changes, you update the allergen tags for that item in 30 seconds. The change appears immediately on every customer's menu. No reprint. No version mismatch between different tables.

Customers with specific allergies can filter the menu to show only dishes that are safe for them. This improves their experience and reduces the number of allergen-related questions during busy service.

Menumigo includes all 14 EU allergen tags on the free plan. No additional cost to display allergen information correctly.

Building a Complete Allergen Compliance System

Beyond the menu display, a complete allergen compliance system includes a written allergen matrix for your kitchen (listing every dish and every allergen present), a process for updating the matrix when recipes or suppliers change, staff training on allergen awareness, and a clear procedure for handling customer allergen queries.

The digital menu handles the customer-facing display. The internal documentation handles the operational side. Both are required for genuine compliance.

Practical Steps to Get Compliant

Start by auditing your current menu. For every dish, list all ingredients and check against the 14 EU allergens. This takes 1–3 hours for a typical restaurant menu.

Add allergen tags to your digital menu — if you are not using a digital menu yet, this is the fastest way to achieve compliant customer-facing allergen display. Create a printed allergen matrix for the kitchen and train your team on handling allergen queries correctly.

The Bottom Line

Allergen compliance is not optional and the cost of non-compliance is too high to ignore. A digital menu with built-in allergen tags is the most reliable way to maintain compliant customer-facing allergen information. Pair it with internal documentation and staff training for a complete system.