Allergen declaration for food suppliers

Under Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on food information to consumers, 14 substances or products that cause allergies or intolerances must be emphasised in the list of ingredients (Annex II). Food businesses pass the question up the chain: every supplier of an ingredient or product is asked to declare which allergens it contains, and what cross-contact is possible.

The 14 allergens

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

What an allergen declaration covers

• For each of the 14: present as an ingredient, possibly present through cross-contact on the same line or site, or absent.
• The ingredient or processing aid each allergen comes from.
• How cross-contact is controlled: cleaning, separation and scheduling, and how these are checked.
• Sometimes analyses, such as gluten at no more than 20 mg/kg for a “gluten-free” claim.

Keeping it current

An allergen declaration is only as good as the last recipe change. A new ingredient supplier, a new product on the same line or a change of process can change your answers, and customers expect you to tell them.

How Kelpfox helps

Kelpfox keeps allergens per product, including cross-contact, with the specification or analysis they come from. It fills your customers’ allergen declarations and specification forms from those facts, in their file and language, with a source for every answer. When a product’s facts change, Kelpfox shows which answers and documents are affected.

Updated October 18, 2026 · General information, not legal advice: check the current rules and your customer's own requirements.