Most hospitality teams can recite the 14 regulated allergens. Fewer can spot them quickly in a busy recipe. This guide is less about the legal list and more about where those allergens actually appear in real menus.

The list is simple; recipes are not

The 14 cover cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk, tree nuts, celery, mustard, sesame, sulphur dioxide/sulphites (above the threshold), lupin and molluscs.

On a recipe card, they rarely appear as neat bullet points. They arrive as:

Compound ingredients (stock cubes, curry pastes, burger buns)
Processing aids and coatings
Garnishes added at the pass
Drinks and sides assumed to be "safe"

Where teams miss them

Gluten

Not only bread. Soy sauce, flour dusting, pastry cases, beer batters and some spice mixes can contribute cereals containing gluten. "Gluten-free bun, same fryer as onion rings" is a different problem again — that is cross-contact, not the ingredient list.

Milk

Butter finishes, cream in mashed potato, whey in processed meats, milk powder in sauces, and coffee drinks on the same menu as food. Milk also hides in some "plant-based" products through shared lines or unexpected ingredients — always read the spec.

Eggs

Mayonnaise, glazes, binders in burgers and fishcakes, fresh pasta, and desserts. Egg wash on pastry is easy to forget when writing allergen flags for a savoury pie.

Celery, mustard and sulphites

These are frequent blind spots in British kitchens. Celery in stocks and ready sauces, mustard in dressings and marinades, sulphites in dried fruit, wine reductions and some sausages or pickles.

Sesame, peanuts and tree nuts

Sesame on buns and in oils or pastes; peanut in satay and some Chinese-inspired sauces; tree nuts in pestos, baklava, salads and pastry toppings. Garnishes change more often than base recipes — track them.

Fish, crustaceans and molluscs

Anchovy in Worcestershire-style sauces, fish sauce in dressings, prawn crackers as a side, mussel stock in "vegetable" soups. Surf-and-turf specials also confuse staff who only checked the steak.

Soy and lupin

Soy in sauces, tofu, edamame and many marinades. Lupin is less common but appears in some baked goods and meat substitutes — worth flagging when present.

Build allergen data at ingredient level

Guessing per dish at service time fails. Better approach:

Break dishes into ingredients and sub-recipes
Flag allergens on each component
Roll those flags up to the dish
Re-check when any component changes

Quiteful is designed around structured dish data so the 14 allergens are tracked with the recipe, not remembered by whoever is on shift.

Custom needs beyond the 14

Guests also ask about garlic, coriander, pea protein, MSG and other ingredients outside the regulated list. That is not a reason to ignore the 14 — it is a reason to support custom allergens where your audience needs them.

A practical kitchen exercise

Pick five bestsellers. For each:

List every ingredient including oils, garnishes and bread
Mark every regulated allergen
Compare to what the menu currently says
Fix mismatches the same day

You will usually find at least one surprise. That surprise is the point of the exercise.

Accurate allergen menus are less about memorising fourteen words and more about knowing your recipes in detail.

See AI ingredient checks for catching allergens hidden in recipe text before a dish goes live.