Name: Date:

Allergen labelling
There are rules that determine the way allergen information appears on labels and on
food that is pre-packed, sold loose or served in a restaurant, café or take-away.
Fourteen major allergens must be highlighted on the label within the ingredients list
rather than in a separate box as has been done in the past. The allergens are:

Cereals containing Milk Sulphur dioxide,

gluten Nuts such as almonds, which is a
Crustaceans, for walnuts, hazelnuts, preservative found in
example prawns, pecans, Brazil nuts, some dried fruit
crab, lobster and pistachio, cashew, Lupin (found in some
crayfish macadamia flour based or gluten
Eggs (Queensland) nuts free products)
Fish Celery (and celeriac) Molluscs for example,
Peanuts Mustard clams, mussels,
Soybeans Sesame oysters, whelks,
snails and squid

The allergen could be identified in bold, highlighted, underlined or in italics. The

example below is for a basic Victoria sponge:-

Eggs, wheat flour, butter, sugar, vanilla essence, baking powder

1. Identify the allergens in the following recipes and produce an ingredients list that
could be included on a label. Remember that ingredients should appear in
descending order of weight.
Scone based pizza Vegetable quiche Macaroni cheese
150g self-raising flour 150g plain flour 100g macaroni
40g hard fat or butter 75g soft fat/spread or 100g Cheddar cheese
a pinch of salt butter 1 tomato (approx. 50g)
100ml milk 125ml semi-skimmed 300ml semi-skimmed
2 x 5ml spoons tomato milk milk
puree 2 large eggs (approx. 25g butter
150g grated cheese or 60g each) 25g plain flour
Mozzarella cheese 50g grated Cheddar 1 x 5ml spoon English
50g chopped green, cheese or Dijon mustard
yellow or red pepper 50g sliced mushrooms
50g cherry tomatoes
50g canned tuna (in 50g frozen sweetcorn or
brine) peas

2. Collect five examples of ingredients lists/food labels that highlight allergen

© Food – a fact of life 2019 www.foodafactoflife.org.uk

1