UK Food Allergen Labelling Explained
The 14 major allergens UK law requires to be declared, how they appear on packaged and loose foods, Natasha's Law, and the gap that means additive triggers can still slip through.
What the law covers
In the UK, food businesses must declare 14 major allergens whenever they are used as ingredients. On packaged food these are emphasised within the ingredients list, usually in bold. The 14 are: celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, and tree nuts.
This list exists because these foods are the most common causes of serious, mainly IgE-mediated food allergies, the kind that can produce rapid and occasionally life-threatening reactions. The law is designed to make those specific ingredients impossible to miss.
This page is educational only and is not medical advice. If you have a diagnosed food allergy, follow the advice of your allergist. Swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or any difficulty breathing after eating, is a medical emergency, call 999.
How it appears on different foods
- Prepacked food: the 14 allergens are emphasised within the ingredients list, so you read the ingredients and the allergens stand out.
- Loose and made-to-order food (bakeries, restaurants, takeaways): the information must be available, whether on a label, a menu, or by asking staff, who are obliged to be able to tell you.
- Prepacked for direct sale (food packed on the premises where it is sold, such as a sandwich made in-store): since Natasha’s Law came into force in October 2021, these must carry a full ingredients list with the allergens emphasised.
Natasha’s Law is worth understanding, because it closed a real gap. Before it, a sandwich made and wrapped on site could be sold without a full ingredients list, which is how a hidden allergen could reach someone who thought they had checked. Now those foods must be labelled like other prepacked products.
The gap to know about for sensitive skin
This is the important point for sensitive skin. The 14 allergens are about serious, mainly IgE allergies, not about the additives, such as certain colours and benzoates, that cause many skin flares. The one overlap is sulphites, which are on the list. So the allergen emphasis is a great start, but for additive triggers you still have to read the full ingredients yourself.
In other words, allergen labelling answers “does this contain one of the big 14”, not “does this contain the specific colour or preservative that flares my skin”. Those additives are legally required to be in the ingredients list, but they are not highlighted, so they sit among everything else in ordinary type.
How to read a UK food label well
Ingredients are listed in order of weight, from most to least. Additives usually appear by their function and either a name or an E number, for example “preservative (sodium benzoate)” or “colour (E110)”. A practical routine looks like this:
- Scan the emphasised allergens first for your serious avoidances.
- Then read the full ingredients for your additive triggers, looking for the specific names and E numbers you react to.
- For loose foods, ask staff directly, since they are required to have the information.
Precautionary “may contain” labels
Statements like “may contain nuts” or “made in a factory that also handles milk” are precautionary. They flag possible cross-contamination rather than a listed ingredient, and they are not legally required. They are not a reliable guide to how much, if any, of the allergen is present. If you have a diagnosed allergy, your allergist is the right person to advise how strictly to treat these warnings, because the sensible approach depends on your own history.
Check products against your list
Allergen labelling covers 14 things; your triggers may be others. A free database like Open Food Facts and Fig give broad ingredient information, while a personal-list app like ClearaScan lets you save your own triggers, allergens and additives alike, and scan any product, food, medication or cosmetic, against your ingredient guard list, flagging only yours. Its Reaction Journal lets you tie a flare back to a product, a shared Care Circle lets family scan for you, and a Trusted Products list keeps what you have cleared. It is currently in early access. (Disclosure: our editor co-founded ClearaScan, and we are not paid to mention the others.)
The Sensitive Skin Ingredient Decoder
A free one-page guide to reading a skincare label fast: the irritants to watch, the fragrance loopholes, and what "fragrance-free" and "hypoallergenic" really mean.
Common questions
Are additives covered by allergen labelling?
Of the additives, only sulphur dioxide and sulphites are on the list of 14 major allergens. Colours and most preservatives appear in the ingredients list but are not emphasised as allergens, so you have to read the full list to find them.
What is Natasha's Law?
Natasha's Law, in force since October 2021, requires food that is prepacked for direct sale, such as a sandwich made and wrapped on the premises where it is sold, to carry a full ingredients list with the 14 allergens emphasised. It closed a gap that previously left these foods without a full label.
Does "may contain" mean a food is unsafe for me?
"May contain" flags a possible cross-contamination risk, not a listed ingredient. It is precautionary and not legally required. How cautious to be depends on your own situation, so if you have a diagnosed allergy, ask your allergist how to treat these warnings.
How are allergens shown on packaged food?
On prepacked food the 14 allergens must be emphasised within the ingredients list, usually in bold, and sometimes also in a different font or colour. There is no longer a separate "allergy advice" box that repeats them, so the ingredients list is where you look.
What about loose foods, like a bakery or a restaurant?
For loose or made-to-order food the allergen information must be available, but it can be provided in writing on a label or menu, or verbally by staff. Staff are obliged to be able to tell you, so it is always reasonable to ask.