Allergen labelling in foodservice: Download your free PDF

Traçabilité

⏳ Temps de lecture : 6 min

? Mis à jour le : 02/12/2024

Summary

Allergen signage for restaurants: download your free PDF
How to identify allergens present in the kitchen?
How to limit the risk of allergen contamination in the kitchen?
How to inform consumers of the presence of allergens?
Allergen display for restaurants: download your free PDF

Displaying allergens in food service is a regulatory obligation for restaurateurs. It allows you to stay compliant with the law and also to protect your customers. 🍽️ An accidental exposure to allergens can cause severe reactions, potentially endangering the lives of your clients.

As a restaurateur, it is your responsibility to identify allergens present in your preparations and to inform your consumers as clearly as possible. Good allergen management also helps reduce cross-contamination risks in the kitchen, thereby ensuring a safe environment for everyone. ✅

In this article, we offer you a guide on best practices for managing allergens in your establishment. As a bonus, we provide a free printable PDF poster dedicated to allergens. It will help you inform your customers while complying with regulations. 🛡️

What does the law say about allergen display in food service? ⚖️

Display obligations in the foodservice industry?

Restaurateurs, including those offering take-away meals and collective catering, have the obligation to mention allergens present in their preparations.

What does the regulation say? The Article 44 of European Regulation 1169/2011 of October 25, 2011 (published in the Official Journal of the European Union on November 22, 2011) requires mandatory information on the presence of the 14 major allergens.

This information obligation can be fulfilled by displaying a small poster visible in the dining area, an indication on the menu, or a document provided to the customer upon simple request. ✅

Allergens must be clearly identifiable. For example, by using pictograms, distinctive colors, or larger font sizes. These details should be regularly updated, especially if recipes or ingredients change. ?

Sanctions in case of non-compliance with regulations

Failure to comply with allergen information obligations may result in:

During a health inspection, an administrative sanction with a reminder of the regulations.
In the event of a serious accident endangering a customer’s health, if the customer files a complaint, the restaurateur may face criminal penalties.

How to identify allergens present in the kitchen?

Identify allergens in the raw materials used

Start by listing the raw materials used in your recipes. For pre-packaged products with labeling (such as sauce bases, mayonnaise, etc.), allergens are mentioned in the ingredient list, usually in bold, uppercase or underlined to be easily identifiable. ✅

Raw products that are themselves common allergens (such as milk, eggs, tree nuts, etc.) should also be mentioned. ?

There are 14 allergens that must be declared:

Tree nuts: almonds, walnuts, cashews, pecans, hazelnuts, pistachios, etc.
Cereals containing gluten: wheat, rye, barley, spelt, kamut, and their derivatives.
Crustaceans: and products made from crustaceans.
Celery: in all its forms (seeds, powder, stalks, etc.).
Eggs: including derivatives such as powdered eggs.
Mustard: seeds, powder, condiments, and mustard-based sauces.
Fish: and all fish-based products.
Soy: soybeans, tofu, soy-based products like soy milk.
Milk (lactose): milk, cheese, butter, cream, yogurt, and other dairy products.
Sulfites: found in some dried fruits, wines, beers, and processed foods.
Sesame seeds: and sesame-based products (oil, paste, etc.).
Lupin: lupin flour and other derivatives.
Peanuts: and derivatives such as peanut butter or peanut oil.
Mollusks: such as oysters, mussels, scallops, squid, etc.

After listing all allergens in your preparations, you can record them on a summary sheet of all allergens. To help you, we offer a downloadable allergen poster in PDF at the end of this article! ?

Create a list of allergens used in your preparations

Once you have identified the allergens in the raw materials, you need to create a list of allergens present in your prepared dishes.

For example ✏️ : if you use mayonnaise in a recipe, you must mention the allergens it contains, such as egg and mustard. Therefore, all dishes containing this mayonnaise must also indicate these allergens.

We know how difficult it is to list all allergens present in your preparations, as you have many raw materials and a product change—for example, a sauce base from brand B delivered instead of your usual brand A—can change the list of allergens. But keeping an up-to-date list is important for the safety of your allergic customers. In collective catering and for restaurateurs with very standardized menus, there are software solutions like Youmeal that allow you to easily list allergens in your preparations. ✅

Traces and cross-contamination: what are they? ?️

A product labeled with the mention “may contain traces of milk, eggs or nuts” means that it was manufactured or packaged in an environment where these allergens are also handled.

Cross-contamination occurs when a food accidentally comes into contact with an allergen, usually due to a lack of precautions in ingredient handling or equipment cleaning. Proper staff hygiene practices are important to limit any cross-contamination.

For example ✏️: poor cleaning of a cutting board, utensils, or improper hand washing after handling allergenic foods can lead to cross-contamination.

How can I limit the risk of allergen contamination in the kitchen? ?

Train your kitchen and dining room staff?

Training your teams is one of the first steps to ensure they understand allergen-related issues. A well-trained team helps protect your customers’ health, ensures compliance with HACCP standards, and provides peace of mind during hygiene inspections. ?

In the kitchen, it’s essential to raise awareness among your staff about the risks allergens pose to people with allergies. Your team must be trained in proper hygiene practices, particularly cleaning utensils and surfaces after each use of allergen-containing ingredients. Personal hygiene is also crucial. Every team member should wash their hands between tasks involving allergenic products (among others) to prevent cross-contamination. ?️

In the dining area, servers must know which allergens require mandatory disclosure and be able to inform customers about their presence in menu items, as well as suggest alternatives. ?

Regarding control samples and their storage, we recommend separating dishes containing allergens from those that don’t, to avoid contaminating samples in case of analysis.

Separating production in a safe environment ✅

To limit cross-contamination risks, it’s important to separate production containing allergens from allergen-free production. We recommend using dedicated preparation areas for allergen-containing foods. If this isn’t possible, you can reduce risks by preparing allergen-free dishes first. This method helps limit the presence of allergen traces that could end up in allergen-free dishes. ?

To make this separation clearer for your teams, you can designate separate kitchen utensils for allergens (knives, cutting boards, containers, whisks, etc.).

For example ✏️: you can implement a color-coding system or labeling method to distinguish utensils used for preparing allergen-containing dishes.

Regarding storage, ensure that products containing allergens are stored separately from other food items to reduce the risk of cross-contamination.

How to inform consumers of the presence of allergens ? ?

EU Regulation No 1169/2011 of 25 October 2011 makes it mandatory to inform your customers about the presence of allergens. This information requirement applies to the 14 major allergens requiring mandatory declaration. ?

There are several ways to inform your consumers:

Allergen Identification on the Menu ?

Allergen identification on the menu: You can indicate allergen presence in dishes directly on the menu using pictograms or specific notations, for example:

A peanut symbol to indicate peanut presence.
A text note such as: “Contains gluten, eggs and soy”.

You can also indicate potential allergen traces in relevant recipes. For this option, you must add an explanatory legend at the bottom of the menu. Here’s an example:

Displaying allergens on a summary chart?

Allergen display: Showing allergens directly on the menu can quickly make it cluttered. You can choose to display allergens in a chart format. This chart can be available in paper or digital format. While wall display isn’t mandatory, the availability of this chart must be indicated on the menu and it should be provided upon customer request. This option may be more practical, especially for menus with extensive dish selections. ?

Allergen Labeling for Self-Service Sales ✅

Self-service products: In the ingredients listed on the label, you must highlight allergens in bold, uppercase or underlined to distinguish them from other ingredients. For unpackaged products, you must provide a chart listing all allergens present in the recipe. ?

Allergen poster for restaurants: download your free PDF ?

To help you manage allergens in your establishment, we’ve created a summary sheet of the 14 major allergens requiring mandatory declaration. This sheet is available for free in PDF format. This document will allow you to easily inform your customers about allergens present in your recipes!

Simply fill out the form to receive your allergen poster in PDF format directly by email. ?