The 14 allergens you must label (with examples)
UK law requires 14 specific allergens to be declared and emphasised on your labels. Here they are, with examples of where each one turns up in baking — including the sneaky ones.
Under UK law (retained EU Regulation 1169/2011), these 14 allergens must be declared whenever they're present, and emphasised — usually in bold — every time they appear in an ingredients list. Here's each one with baking-relevant examples.
| Allergen | Where it hides in baking |
|---|---|
| Celery | Stalks, leaves, seeds and celeriac; some stocks and savoury bakes |
| Cereals containing gluten | Wheat (incl. spelt and khorasan/kamut), rye, barley, oats — so flour, breadcrumbs, malt, some baking powders |
| Crustaceans | Prawns, crab, lobster — rare in baking but possible in savoury items |
| Eggs | Whole egg, egg wash, meringue, some glazes, mayonnaise |
| Fish | Anchovy (e.g. in Worcestershire sauce), fish stock in savoury bakes |
| Lupin | Lupin flour, sometimes in gluten-free baking mixes |
| Milk | Butter, cream, cheese, milk powder, whey, yoghurt, some chocolate |
| Molluscs | Mussels, oysters, squid — rare in baking |
| Mustard | Mustard powder/seeds in savoury pastries and some chutneys |
| Peanuts | Peanut butter, groundnut oil, some praline |
| Sesame | Seeds on loaves, tahini, some cracker and bread mixes |
| Soybeans | Soya flour, soya lecithin (very common in chocolate), some margarines |
| Sulphur dioxide / sulphites | Dried fruit (raisins, apricots), some glacé cherries and fruit fillings (above 10mg/kg) |
| Tree nuts | Almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, brazils, pistachios, macadamias — marzipan, frangipane, praline, nut flours |
The ones that catch people out
A few allergens hide in ingredients you might not think to check:
- Soya — lecithin is in a huge amount of chocolate, so most chocolate bakes contain soya.
- Sulphites — dried fruit and glacé cherries are common culprits, easy to overlook in a fruit cake.
- Gluten — turns up in some baking powders, flavourings and malt, not just flour.
- Milk — "butterfat," "whey," "casein" and "lactose" all mean milk is present.
How to catch them all reliably
The safest approach is to work from the actual printed ingredients on each packet, not from memory. BakeLabels does exactly this — you photograph each ingredients list and it checks the text against all 14 allergens, highlighting matches for you to confirm. It's a helpful safety net, but always double-check against the packet.
Let BakeLabels spot the allergens for you
Photograph your ingredients and it highlights the 14 allergens automatically. Free to use.
Open the label builder →This article is general information, not legal advice, and food law can change. For current official guidance see the Food Standards Agency (food.gov.uk), including its PPDS allergen labelling guidance, or contact your local council's environmental health team.