The 14 Major Allergens Explained (and What They Mean When Eating Out)

If you have a food allergy or intolerance, the good news is that European law is on your side. Across the EU, restaurants and cafés must be able to tell you whether a dish contains any of 14 named allergens. The catch: they only have to tell you about ingredients they put in on purpose — and those ingredients hide in more places than most menus admit.

Here's what the 14 allergens are, where each one quietly turns up, and how to ask so you get a straight answer.

Why the EU lists 14 allergens

These 14 were chosen because they cause the large majority of serious allergic reactions and intolerances across Europe. The rule (EU Regulation 1169/2011) requires that any of these, when used as an ingredient, be declared to the customer. In a restaurant that can be on the menu, on a separate allergen sheet, or verbally by staff — but if it's verbal, there must be a clear sign telling you to ask.

What the law does not require is a guarantee against accidental cross-contamination. That gap is exactly where most risk lives, so keep it in mind throughout.

The 14 allergens, one by one

1. Cereals containing gluten

Wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt and kamut. Obvious in bread and pasta, hidden in soy sauce, battered and breaded items, sausages, gravies, soups thickened with flour, and even some chips dusted to stay crisp. For coeliacs, even trace gluten matters — "a little" is never safe.

2. Crustaceans

Prawns, crab, lobster, langoustine. Watch for shellfish stock in Asian noodle soups, bisques, and paella.

3. Eggs

Beyond omelettes: mayonnaise, fresh pasta, many breads, meringue, and as a glaze brushed over pastry.

4. Fish

Hidden in Worcestershire sauce (anchovy), Caesar dressing, some kimchi, fish sauce in Thai and Vietnamese dishes, and stocks.

5. Peanuts

A legume, not a tree nut. Common in satay sauces, some baked goods, and cold-pressed peanut oil.

6. Soybeans

Turns up in bread, soy sauce, tofu, edamame, many vegan meat substitutes, and emulsifiers (soy lecithin) in chocolate and sauces.

7. Milk

Not just cheese and cream. Look for butter on "plain" vegetables, milk powder in bread, whey in crisps, and milk brushed onto Dutch-style bolus or pastries.

8. Nuts (tree nuts)

Almond, hazelnut, walnut, cashew, pecan, pistachio, macadamia, Brazil nut and Queensland nut. Common in pesto, praline, some spice pastes, and nut oils used for finishing.

9. Celery

Both the stalk and celeriac. Hides in stock cubes, soups, spice mixes and bitterballen or croquette fillings.

10. Mustard

Whole, powdered, or as an emulsifier. Found in dressings, mayonnaise-based sauces, marinades and many frikandel-style processed items.

11. Sesame seeds

On and in bread and burger buns, in hummus (tahini), halva, and drizzled sesame oil.

12. Sulphur dioxide and sulphites

Preservatives in wine, dried fruit, some vinegars, and pre-cut potatoes for fries. Can trigger asthma-like reactions.

13. Lupin

A legume flour increasingly used in baking and gluten-free products — check breads and pastries.

14. Molluscs

Mussels, oysters, squid, snails. Central to Dutch classics like mosselen but also lurking in seafood mixes and some oyster-sauce dishes.

What restaurants must (and need not) tell you

Knowing the boundary of the law helps you ask the right questions.

• They must tell you which of the 14 allergens are deliberate ingredients in a dish.
• They must make that information easy to access — a menu note, an allergen folder, or staff who can check.
• They need not guarantee zero cross-contamination in a shared kitchen.
• They need not track allergens outside these 14 (so a garlic or nightshade intolerance won't be covered).

A busy kitchen in a bruin café frying different items in the same oil, or a bakery where flour is airborne all day, may prepare a dish with no gluten ingredients that still isn't safe for a coeliac. That's not a legal failure — it's the limit of what the rule covers.

This is why a "may contain" flag matters as much as "contains". Tools like Allergent show a restaurant's own kitchen-confirmed menu filtered to your allergies, marking each dish as safe, adaptable, may contain, or contains — so the cross-contamination question is answered before you sit down.

How to ask so you actually get a useful answer

Vague questions get vague answers. "Is this safe for me?" puts the risk assessment on someone who doesn't know your body. Instead, be specific and factual.

1. Name your allergen, not your diet. Say "I have a severe milk allergy," not "I'm dairy-free" — the second sounds like a preference.
2. Ask about the whole plate. Sauces, garnishes, marinades and the oil things are fried in, not just the headline ingredient.
3. Ask about shared equipment. "Is this fried in the same oil as breaded items?" or "Is bread cut on a shared board?"
4. Ask them to check, not guess. A good kitchen will look at the recipe or packaging. "Could you check with the chef?" is a reasonable request.
5. Confirm at the point of serving, especially in a group booking where dishes can be swapped.

If a member of staff seems unsure and won't check, treat that as a "no". For coeliacs and anyone with a history of anaphylaxis, an uncertain answer is not an acceptable answer.

For more practical guides to eating out safely, browse the Allergent blog.