Allergen support from Country Choice

An allergen is a substance that triggers an immediate, sometimes extreme immune response in some people. Most food allergens are proteins, but some additives can also be allergenic, e.g. sulphites.

A food allergy is the body reacting unusually to specific foods. The immune system wrongly identifies certain proteins as a threat and tries to fight them off as though they were an infection. The symptoms can range from mild reactions like hives and itching to severe and potentially life-threatening reactions known as anaphylaxis.

There are currently 14 foods and ingredients that you must declare as allergens under food law. All prepacked for direct sale food will need to have a label showing a full ingredient list with the declarable allergens clearly emphasised on the ingredients list when present.

The 14 allergens are: celery, cereals containing gluten (such as wheat, barley and oats), crustaceans (such as prawns, crabs and lobsters), eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs (such as mussels and oysters), mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphur dioxide and sulphites (if the sulphur dioxide and sulphites are at a concentration of more than ten parts per million)and tree nuts (such as almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, brazil nuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios and macadamia nuts).