The 14 allergens: the list, and an allergen matrix for your dishes

Every food business in the UK must be able to tell customers whether a dish contains any of 14 allergens. For food that is not prepacked, which is almost everything a restaurant, café or pub serves, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) accepts full written information on a menu, chalkboard or information pack, or information given by staff together with a clearly visible written notice telling customers to ask. The FSA adds that “written allergen information, supported by a conversation, works best for consumers”. An allergen matrix, your dishes against the 14 allergens, is the simplest way to keep that written record. Below: the list, a matrix you can copy, what Natasha’s Law does and does not cover, and how a QR code menu shows the allergens of every dish.

This guide explains the rules as the FSA states them for England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Scotland has its own regulator, Food Standards Scotland. It is not legal advice, and no menu, printed or digital, makes a business compliant on its own: that rests on your recipes, your records and your staff.

What are the 14 allergens?

These are the 14 allergens UK law requires food businesses to declare, in the FSA’s wording:

The FSA lists them in alphabetical order, so the numbers above are only for reference. The same 14 apply when an allergen is in an additive, a processing aid or any other substance present in the finished dish.

What is an allergen matrix?

An allergen matrix is a chart of every dish against the 14 allergens, with a mark wherever an allergen is present. It is the written record behind your menu: staff read it when a guest asks, and you update it whenever a recipe or a supplier changes. The FSA publishes a blank one with its allergen guidance; the example below shows how a filled one reads. The recipes are examples, so your own recipes and your suppliers’ labels decide the marks on yours.

The example recipes: fish and chips with cod in a wheat flour and beer batter, served with tartare sauce made with egg mayonnaise and Dijon mustard; a Caesar salad with wheat croutons, Parmesan, and a dressing of egg yolk, anchovies and mustard; a sticky toffee pudding with wheat flour, eggs, butter and cream. Swap one ingredient, a gluten-free batter or a dressing without anchovies, and the marks change. That is why the matrix has to move with the recipe.

Three habits keep a matrix honest:

• One column per dish as served, including the sauce, the dressing, the side and the garnish. The surprises are rarely in the main ingredient.
• Name the cereal and the nut. “Wheat” or “walnuts” helps a guest more than a bare mark, because many people react to one kind and not the others.
• Date it and sign it. Write the date of the last check at the top, and check again whenever a recipe, a product or a supplier changes.

How must a restaurant give allergen information?

For non-prepacked food, the FSA allows allergen information “by any means”, and names the usual ones:

1. Full written information on a menu, a chalkboard or in an information pack.
2. Verbal information from staff, but only together with a written notice placed in a clearly visible position, telling customers how to find the allergen information. The FSA offers a ready-made “allergy and intolerance” sign for this.
3. Distance selling (online or phone orders): the information must be available at two stages, before the purchase is completed and when the food is delivered.

If your kitchen cannot rule out cross-contact, the FSA says you should tell customers that you cannot provide an allergen-free dish.

Does Natasha’s Law apply to restaurant menus?

No, not to dishes made to order. Natasha’s Law is the set of rules for food “prepacked for direct sale” (PPDS) that came in across the UK on 1 October 2021. PPDS food is packed on the same premises where it is sold, before the customer orders or picks it: a sandwich or salad box in the chiller, a pie in packaging, soup already in pots. It needs a label with the name of the food and a full ingredients list, with the 14 allergens emphasised.

A plate cooked and served to order is not PPDS, and neither is food packed at the customer’s request. For those dishes the rules for non-prepacked food above apply. Many restaurants and cafés have both: plated dishes on the menu and a grab-and-go fridge by the till. The fridge needs PPDS labels; the menu needs allergen information.

How does a QR code menu show the 14 allergens?

A QR code menu turns the matrix into something each guest can read on their own phone, before ordering. In doXmenu it works like this:

• you tick the allergens of each dish once in the dashboard: the 14, plus corn and mushrooms;
• allergen icons appear on the dish card next to the price, and the allergen names on the dish page;
• guests read them in their own language, in any of the 24 menu languages you switch on;
• tapping an allergen lists every dish that contains it, and the menu search finds dishes by allergen too;
• when a recipe changes, you change the ticks and the menu shows the new answer at once, with no reprint.

“May contain” warnings and the exact cereal or nut can go in the dish description, so they sit next to the dish as well.

What a QR code menu does not do. It does not check your recipes: the menu is exactly as right as the ticks someone sets. It does not replace the conversation the FSA recommends, or your staff’s knowledge. And not every guest will scan a code, so keep the written notice in view and a printed copy of your matrix at the counter. A QR code menu adds to your printed menu and your records; it does not stand in for them.

A five-minute weekly routine

1. Walk the matrix against this week’s recipes and specials.
2. Check the labels of any product that arrived from a new supplier or in new packaging.
3. Update the ticks on the menu and the date on the matrix in the same sitting.
4. Brief the shift: what changed, and where the matrix is kept.
5. Check the written notice is still visible at the counter and on the tables.

Frequently asked questions

Where do these rules come from?

The FSA’s allergen guidance for food businesses (updated 17 July 2026; the blank matrix and the allergy sign are on the publication page) and the FSA’s PPDS guide for restaurants, cafés and pubs (updated 17 July 2026), both read on 17 October 2026. Outside the UK, the EU rules are in our guide to the 14 EU allergens on a QR menu.

Next: see how a QR code menu for restaurants works, what it means for UK pubs, cafés and restaurants, what it costs on the pricing page, or put the code on your tables with a stand from the shop. Or start your first month free.