Ask a new member of staff whether your korma contains nuts and "I think so" is not an answer the law accepts. Every restaurant, café, takeaway and food truck in the UK and EU must be able to give accurate allergen information for every item it sells — before the customer orders. The fastest way to get there, and to prove it to an inspector, is a properly built allergen matrix. This guide gives you the full 14 allergens list, a working food allergen chart, and a step-by-step method for building and maintaining a matrix of your own.
1. What an allergen matrix is and why you need one
An allergen matrix — sometimes called a food allergen chart — is a simple grid: your menu items listed down the side, the 14 regulated allergens across the top, and a clear mark in every box where an allergen is present in that dish. One page, or one screen, that answers "what's in it?" instantly and consistently, whoever is on shift.
The matrix itself is not named in any regulation. What the law demands is that the allergen information you give customers is accurate, specific to each dish and available before purchase. The matrix is simply the most reliable way to meet that duty: it forces you to check every recipe once, properly, and it gives front-of-house staff a single source of truth instead of guesswork shouted across the pass. It also slots straight into your wider food safety management system — if you are still getting that in order, start with our plain-English HACCP guide.
2. The 14 allergens list
UK and EU law regulates the same 14 allergens, so your matrix needs a column for each. Here is the full 14 allergens list and where each allergen likes to hide:
| Allergen | Commonly found in | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Celery | Stalks, leaves, seeds and celeriac; soups, salads, stocks | Stock cubes, bouillon powder, celery salt, spice mixes |
| Cereals containing gluten | Wheat (including spelt and khorasan), rye, barley and oats; bread, pasta, batter, couscous | Soy sauce, beer, foods dusted with flour, oats milled alongside wheat |
| Crustaceans | Prawns, crab, lobster, crayfish, scampi | Shrimp paste in Thai and other south-east Asian curries and sauces |
| Eggs | Cakes, quiche, fresh pasta, mayonnaise, mousses | Pastry glazes, meringue in desserts, some sauces and dressings |
| Fish | Fish dishes, fish sauce, anchovies | Worcestershire sauce, Caesar dressing, some relishes and stocks |
| Lupin | Lupin flour and seeds in some breads, pastries and pasta | Continental baked goods; some gluten-free flour blends |
| Milk | Butter, cheese, cream, yoghurt, milk powder | Foods brushed with milk, powdered soups and sauces, "plant-based" dishes made on shared equipment |
| Molluscs | Mussels, squid, octopus, oysters, scallops, snails, whelks | Oyster sauce, fish stews and seafood pastes |
| Mustard | Mustard as liquid, powder or seeds; dressings | Curries, marinades, sauces, soups, processed meat products |
| Peanuts | Satay sauce, peanut butter, groundnut oil | Peanut flour in sauces and desserts; "groundnut" on a label means peanut |
| Sesame | Seeds on buns and breads, tahini, houmous, sesame oil | Burger buns, breadsticks, salads and dressings — the allergen at the centre of Natasha's Law |
| Soya | Tofu, edamame, soya milk, textured vegetable protein | Soy sauce, miso, many vegetarian products, some desserts and ice cream |
| Sulphur dioxide / sulphites (above 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/litre) | Dried fruit, wine, beer, cider | Dried apricots and raisins, some soft drinks, sausages and burger mixes, pre-prepared vegetables |
| Tree nuts | Almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, brazil nuts, pistachios, macadamias | Marzipan, praline, pesto, nut oils, curries and desserts |
"Contains gluten" or "contains nuts" is not precise enough. You must identify the actual cereal (wheat, rye, barley or oats) and the actual tree nut. A customer with a hazelnut allergy may tolerate almonds perfectly well — they need to know exactly which nut is in the dish.
3. What the law requires: FIC 1169/2011 and Natasha's Law
The allergen information requirements for food businesses come from EU Regulation 1169/2011 on food information to consumers (the FIC), in force for allergens since December 2014 and retained in UK law after Brexit. In practice it means three things:
- You must know which of the 14 allergens are deliberately present in every food and drink you sell — including sides, sauces, garnishes and specials.
- The information must be accurate and specific to each dish. A blanket "all our food may contain allergens" disclaimer does not satisfy the law.
- For non-prepacked food, the information can be written — on the menu, a chalkboard or an allergen folder — or given verbally, but in the UK verbal answers must be backed by clear written signposting telling customers where to ask.
Natasha's Law tightened the rules further for prepacked-for-direct-sale (PPDS) food. Since 1 October 2021, any food packed on your premises before the customer orders it — wrapped sandwiches in a chiller, boxed salads, tubs of coleslaw — needs full PPDS labelling: a complete ingredient list on the pack with each of the 14 allergens emphasised, for example in bold. The law is named after Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died after eating a prepacked baguette containing undeclared sesame.
Enforcement is real. Environmental health officers check allergen controls during routine inspections, and failures can bring improvement notices, fines and prosecution.
4. How to build your allergen matrix, step by step
- List every item you sell. Dishes, specials, sides, sauces, desserts, drinks, condiments. If a customer can order it, it goes on the matrix.
- Gather the evidence. Product labels, supplier specification sheets and your own recipes. Never work from memory — manufacturers reformulate without warning.
- Break each dish into components. A burger is not one ingredient: it is a bun (wheat, sesame), a patty, a sauce (egg, mustard), cheese (milk) and a garnish. Check every component, including oils, stocks and dusting flour.
- Mark the allergens dish by dish. Tick each column where the allergen is present, recording the specific cereal or nut.
- Record cross-contact risks separately. Shared fryers, shared grills and open nut storage belong in a notes column, not mixed in with deliberate ingredients — more on this below.
- Date it, sign it, version it. An undated matrix is worthless as evidence. Every review or change gets a fresh date and initials.
A blank allergen matrix template is essentially a grid of dishes against 14 columns — you can build one on paper or in a spreadsheet, and it pairs naturally with the documents in our free HACCP plan template. Or keep it digital, where updates take seconds and old versions archive themselves.
5. Cross-contamination controls
Your matrix tells customers what is deliberately in a dish. Cross-contamination — strictly, allergen cross-contact — is the other half of the job, because for severe allergies trace amounts matter. Build these controls into daily practice:
- Separate storage. Sealed, labelled containers, with high-risk allergens such as nuts and flour kept away from open foods.
- Dedicated equipment where it counts. Shared fryer oil carries gluten from battered items into your chips. If you cannot run a separate fryer, the matrix and your staff must say so.
- Clean between tasks. Boards, knives, tongs, surfaces and hands after handling any allergen. Colour-coded boards help, but they are no substitute for washing.
- Control the order journey. Allergy orders should be flagged from the till to the kitchen, prepared with clean equipment and plated separately, with one named person responsible.
These controls belong in your HACCP-based system as written procedures, sitting alongside your temperature logs and cleaning schedules — an inspector will expect to see all three working together.
6. Keeping your matrix accurate
Most allergen failures in small food businesses do not come from ignorance of the rules. They come from drift: the matrix was right when it was written, then the menu moved on.
Your wholesaler runs out of your usual pesto and sends a different brand — one made with cashews. If nobody checks the new label against the matrix, a dish you have been describing as nut-free is now dangerous, and your own records say otherwise. Make label-checking on delivery a written rule, not a habit.
Update the matrix the moment a recipe changes, a supplier or brand changes, or a new dish or special goes on. Brief the whole team on every change, and keep superseded versions so you can show an inspector the history. If you currently run a paper Safer Food, Better Business pack, its allergen pages suffer the same fate as the rest of it — see our guide to digital alternatives to the SFBB diary.
HaccpApp keeps your allergen matrix, daily checks and records together on any Android phone or tablet — download it from Google Play and you can update a dish's allergens in seconds, with every change dated automatically.
An allergen matrix is the single most effective tool for meeting your allergen information requirements: list every dish, mark every one of the 14 allergens, control cross-contact in the kitchen, and update the matrix the moment anything changes. HaccpApp handles all of it digitally for £9.99 a month with a 3-day free trial — a small price against the consequences of one wrong answer.
7. Frequently asked questions
Is an allergen matrix a legal requirement?
No specific format is written into law. What the law requires is accurate allergen information for every dish, available to customers before they buy. An allergen matrix is the standard way to achieve that, and a dated, signed matrix is strong evidence of due diligence.
Does Natasha's Law apply to my café or takeaway?
Only to prepacked-for-direct-sale food — items packed on your premises before the customer orders them, such as wrapped sandwiches or boxed salads in a display fridge. Those need full PPDS labelling with a complete ingredient list and allergens emphasised. Food made to order is not PPDS, but it still needs accurate allergen information under FIC 1169/2011.
Are coconut and pine nuts on the 14 allergens list?
No. "Tree nuts" in the regulation means almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, brazil nuts, pistachios and macadamias. Coconut and pine nuts are not among the 14 regulated allergens, though some customers are allergic to them — you can still record and share that information voluntarily.
Can I just put "may contain" warnings on everything?
No. Blanket disclaimers do not meet the accuracy requirement and can amount to failing to provide allergen information at all. Precautionary "may contain" statements should only be used where a real, specific cross-contact risk remains after you have applied sensible controls.
How often should I update my allergen matrix?
Immediately, whenever anything changes — a recipe, a supplier, a brand, a new special. On top of that, review the whole matrix periodically alongside your HACCP review, even if you believe nothing has changed.