Guide

The 14 major allergens UK law must declare

The fourteen allergens every UK food label has to emphasise, why they're in bold, and what Natasha's Law changed for food packed to order.

UK law names fourteen allergens that must be declared whenever they are used as an ingredient. Learn the list once and label-reading gets much faster.

The fourteen

Celery, cereals containing gluten (such as wheat, rye, barley and oats), crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soya, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, and tree nuts.

Why they’re emphasised

These fourteen account for the large majority of serious food-allergic reactions, so the law requires them to be emphasised in the ingredients list - made to stand out from the surrounding text. That is why scanning the bold words is the fastest first pass on any label.

What the emphasis does and doesn’t cover

The rule covers these fourteen, as deliberate ingredients. It does not cover allergens outside the list, nor cross-contamination (which is the job of the voluntary “may contain” line). And it doesn’t help if your allergen is hiding under a name you don’t recognise - which is why knowing the aliases matters.

Natasha’s Law

Since October 2021, food pre-packed for direct sale - the sandwich made and wrapped in the shop you buy it from, for example - must also carry a full ingredients list with the fourteen emphasised. It closed a gap that had left those foods without ingredient labels at all.

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Common questions

Do the 14 allergens have to be in bold?

They must be emphasised within the ingredients list so they stand out, which in practice almost always means bold, but it can also be done with capitals, italics or a different colour.

What did Natasha's Law change?

From October 2021, food pre-packed for direct sale (made and packed on the same premises it is sold from) must carry a full ingredients list with the 14 allergens emphasised, just like factory-packed food.

Written and reviewed by the Food Allergy Lab editorial team.

A note on this content. The Food Allergy Lab publishes general educational information, not medical advice. If you have or suspect a food allergy, speak to a GP, allergist or dietitian. Recipes and labels change without notice, so always check the ingredients on the product itself.