The 14 UK Food Allergens: What Your Label Must Show

Every UK food label, whether PPDS or standard prepacked, must emphasise 14 legally recognised allergens wherever they appear in the ingredients list. The emphasis has to be consistent throughout the whole label, not applied selectively to some ingredients and missed on others.

The full list:

1. Celery
2. Cereals containing gluten (wheat, rye, barley, oats)
3. Crustaceans
4. Eggs
5. Fish
6. Lupin
7. Milk
8. Molluscs
9. Mustard
10. Tree nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, Brazil nuts, pistachios, macadamia)
11. Peanuts
12. Sesame
13. Soybeans
14. Sulphur dioxide and sulphites, above 10mg per kg or litre

How emphasis actually works

There's no single required font or colour. Bold is the most common method, but any consistent way of visually distinguishing an allergen from the rest of the ingredients list is acceptable, as long as it's applied the same way every time that allergen appears. A label that bolds "milk" in one ingredient but misses it in another isn't compliant, even if the ingredient itself is listed correctly.

What's not required

PPDS food doesn't legally need a "may contain" statement to be compliant. This precautionary allergen labelling is still voluntary in the UK. That said, it's worth watching this space, because it's one of the areas regulators are actively reviewing right now.

Where this goes wrong in practice

The most common allergen labelling mistakes aren't about knowing the list. They're about keeping every product's label in sync with it:

• A recipe changes and the allergen list isn't updated everywhere it appears
• A new product copies an old label template and inherits its mistakes
• Emphasis is applied inconsistently across a growing range
• A seasonal or limited item gets rushed to print without a full allergen check

Checking every SKU against all 14 allergens by hand gets harder as a range grows. That's the exact problem an automated check is built to solve, catching a missed or inconsistent allergen before a label goes to print rather than after a customer reaction forces a recall.