Reading allergen labels abroad: how US and UK rules differ

A label that is clear at home can hide your allergen overseas, because countries highlight different allergens in different ways. Here is what changes between the UK and the US, and how to read safely on holiday.

A food label is written to one country’s rules. Cross a border and those rules change, which means the allergen that is impossible to miss at home can quietly disappear into the small print abroad. If you are travelling, it pays to know what is different before you are stood in a foreign supermarket.

The headline difference: nine versus fourteen

The US requires nine major allergens to be declared: milk, egg, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame, which was added from January 2023.

The UK and EU require fourteen. That list includes all of the above, plus celery, mustard, lupin, molluscs, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, and cereals containing gluten (so barley and rye, not just wheat).

The gap matters. If you react to celery, mustard, lupin, molluscs or sulphites, a US label is not required to single your allergen out at all. It may still be in the ingredients, but you will have to find it yourself.

The other difference: how it is shown

The two systems even highlight allergens differently:

• UK and EU: the allergen is emphasised inside the ingredients list, usually in bold, every time it appears. You read the list and the allergens jump out.
• US: the allergens are most often gathered into a separate “Contains” statement underneath, for example “Contains: milk, soy, wheat”. You read the summary line.

If you scan a US pack the UK way, hunting for bold inside the list, you can miss the “Contains” line doing the real work. Train yourself to look for both.

Wheat is not the same as gluten

One trap for coeliacs and gluten-avoiders: the US treats wheat as the allergen, not “cereals containing gluten”. Barley and rye are not US major allergens, so a US label may not flag them the way a UK one would. If you avoid gluten rather than just wheat, read the full ingredients and look for a certified gluten-free mark rather than trusting the allergen summary.

Practical rules for shopping abroad

• Read the ingredients list in full, not just the summary. The “Contains” or bold-allergen line is a shortcut for the local major allergens, not a complete safety check for yours.
• Learn your allergen’s name in the local language before you travel, and a couple of its hidden names too.
• Be extra careful with the five UK-only allergens (celery, mustard, lupin, molluscs, sulphites) outside the UK and EU, since they may not be highlighted anywhere on the pack.
• Carry a written allergy card in the local language for eating out, where labelling rules do not help you at all.

The habit that travels well is the same one that works at home: read the actual ingredients, treat the highlighted summary as a helpful shortcut rather than the whole answer, and when the rules are unfamiliar, slow down and read the whole panel.

Written and reviewed by the Food Allergy Lab editorial team.