Restaurant Allergen Menu Requirements in Europe: What the Law Actually Says (2026)

August 3, 2026 at 1:19 PMTabres Team

allergen menu requirements restaurant allergen law eu allergen regulation allergen labelling food allergy compliance

Most restaurant owners think they're covered because their chef knows the recipes. That is exactly the gap inspectors write up.

Short answer: In every EU country, allergen information for the food you serve must be available to the guest before they order, for every dish, with no exemption for small businesses. EU Regulation 1169/2011 sets that baseline and names the 14 allergens. But it does not say whether the information has to be printed on your menu, kept in a folder, or spoken by a waiter. Article 44 hands that decision to each country. So the list is identical from Dublin to Tallinn — the paperwork is not.

That single split explains almost every argument owners have with inspectors. Knowing the allergens isn't the legal duty. Being able to hand them over, before ordering, in the form your country accepts — that's the duty.

The one sentence that decides your whole setup

Article 44 of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 covers food sold loose — which is basically everything a restaurant plates up. It says allergen information is mandatory, then lets each member state decide the means of expression and presentation.

In real life, that produces three legal setups across Europe:

Written and unasked. The guest must be able to read it themselves, without asking a soul.
Written on request. A visible notice points to a written record staff can produce on demand.
Spoken, with backup. A waiter can tell the guest — but only if a notice says so and a written record exists behind it.

Your country picks one. Your job is to know which. Get this wrong and you can be perfectly honest, perfectly informed, and still fail an inspection.

The baseline every EU country shares

Whatever your national rule, these apply everywhere. There's no version of the law where these are optional.

Every dish is covered. Specials, kids' menu, the sauce on the side, the bread you bring for free.
Before ordering, not after. Information that arrives with the plate is legally too late.
Ingredients and processing aids both count. The frying oil. The dusting flour. The marinade.
No small-business exemption. A food truck, a two-seat cafe, a school canteen and a 200-cover restaurant carry the identical duty.
Takeaway and delivery are included. No waiter to ask means the information has to travel some other way.
Drinks count. Wine has sulphites, beer has gluten, some cocktails carry egg white.
The information must be accurate today, not accurate when the recipe was written.

Six of those seven catch people out because they sound like edge cases. They aren't. The free bread and the specials board are two of the most common findings on an inspection report.

If you're still building your list of what's actually in each dish, start with our full guide to the 15 food allergens restaurants must know — this article assumes you know the list and deals only with what the law makes you do with it.

"Available" does not mean "written on the menu"

This is the phrase that costs people money, so let's kill the confusion.

EU law says allergen information must be available. Several countries then go further and say available in writing. A few go further still and say available in writing without the guest having to ask.

Those are three genuinely different obligations:

Standard	What it means in your dining room
Available	You must be able to give the answer accurately, every time, for every dish
Available in writing	It has to exist as a document — a menu, a board, a register, a screen
Written, unasked	The guest must be able to find it themselves without a conversation

A restaurant in Dublin and a restaurant in Amsterdam can run identical kitchens and have completely different legal duties at the table. Same allergens. Same guests. Different rules.

Country by country: how the information must reach your guest

Here's the map for non-prepacked food — the ordinary plate off the menu. Treat this as a starting point, then confirm with your national authority before you print anything.

Country	How allergen information must reach the guest	Who checks
Ireland	In writing, legible, available without the guest having to ask — menu, board or a document at the point of order	FSAI + local Environmental Health Officers
France	In writing, visible and freely accessible where the order is placed	DGCCRF
Spain	In writing before ordering — menu, board, digital menu or another visible medium (Real Decreto 126/2015)	AESAN + regional authorities
Italy	On the menu, or in a dedicated written register the guest can consult, with a clear notice pointing to it	Local ASL, NAS Carabinieri
Germany	Written (menu, board, record) or spoken — but only with a visible notice and written documentation available at all times	State food inspection authorities
Austria	Written, or spoken by a trained member of staff — allergen training is part of the rule	AGES + district authorities
Netherlands	Available on request; spoken is accepted when a visible notice says so and a written record backs it up	NVWA
Belgium	Written or spoken; spoken requires a visible notice plus documentation	FAVV / AFSCA
Portugal	Available at the point of sale — written, or clearly signposted with a record staff can produce	ASAE
Poland	On the menu, a board, or on request with a clearly visible notice, plus a written record	Sanepid
Estonia	Available before ordering — written, or spoken with a notice and a written record	Agriculture and Food Board (PTA)
Sweden, Denmark, Finland	Spoken generally accepted with a clear notice; the written record must exist and be current	Livsmedelsverket / Fødevarestyrelsen / Ruokavirasto
Greece	Available before ordering — on the menu, or on request with a notice	EFET
Czechia	Menu, board, or on request with a notice and a record	SZPI
United Kingdom (outside the EU)	Non-prepacked may be spoken with clear signposting; PPDS food must carry a full ingredient list with allergens emphasised (Natasha's Law). Written allergen information is being moved toward mandatory.	FSA + local EHOs

Notice the pattern. Even in the most relaxed countries, the written record is never optional — only whether the guest sees it directly. Nowhere in Europe can you legally run allergen information out of a chef's memory.

The three setups — and which one to pick

You don't have to build the most complicated system your country allows. But building for the strictest standard costs almost nothing extra and travels well.

Setup 1 — Allergens on the menu itself. Icons or codes next to each dish. Legal everywhere. Guests love it. The catch: every recipe change means a reprint, and the day your bread supplier reformulates, your printed menu becomes wrong. Our menu printing cost breakdown shows what that cycle actually costs across a year.

Setup 2 — A written register plus a notice. A folder or binder with a dish-by-dish allergen matrix, and a visible sign telling guests it exists. Legal in most of Europe, cheap to build, and it fails in one specific way: nobody updates it. If the last date on the folder is two years old, it's decoration, and an inspector will treat it that way.

Setup 3 — A digital menu with allergens per dish. Tag each dish once, change an ingredient once, and every table, QR code and delivery order updates instantly. It satisfies the strict "written and unasked" standard and the relaxed one, in every language you publish. If you're moving from paper, our guide to turning a PDF menu into a digital QR menu is the shortest route, and how to create a QR code menu for free covers starting from scratch.

Honest recommendation: run Setup 3 with a printed backup. Digital for the detail and the languages, one printed sheet behind the bar for the guest whose phone is dead and the inspector who wants paper.

Does a QR menu count as legal allergen information?

This question comes up constantly, so let's answer it directly.

Yes, a digital menu can satisfy allergen requirements — Spain names digital media explicitly, and no EU country bans it. The information is written, it's available before ordering, and it's arguably more current than anything printed.

But three conditions decide whether it holds up:

The guest must reach it before ordering. A QR code on the table works. A link emailed with the receipt does not.
You need a non-digital fallback. Dead battery, no data, an older guest who doesn't scan. One printed allergen sheet behind the bar solves this permanently.
It has to actually load. A broken QR menu is a compliance failure, not just a bad night — see why QR code menus stop working and whether QR codes expire.

Also worth knowing: table-specific QR codes mean the allergen information travels with the order from that exact table, which makes the kitchen ticket cleaner. If you're comparing formats, QR menu vs printed menu weighs both honestly, and we've listed the free QR menu tools worth trying.

The PPDS trap: when your sandwich needs a full ingredient list

Here's the rule that catches delis, bakeries, hotel breakfast counters and grab-and-go fridges — and almost nobody sees it coming.

If you pack food on your premises before a guest chooses it — a sandwich wrapped and put in a chiller, a salad boxed for the counter, a cake slice bagged in the morning — that is a different legal category from a plate you cook to order. It's prepacked for direct sale (PPDS).

PPDS food needs a full ingredient list on the label, with the allergens emphasised in bold, capitals, or a contrasting colour. Not "ask our staff". Not a folder. On the pack.

This became famous in the UK as Natasha's Law, after the death of a teenager who bought a baguette with no visible allergen labelling. The same logic runs through EU labelling rules for prepacked food.

The quick test:

Cooked to order and plated? Non-prepacked rules. Your country's method applies.
Wrapped or boxed before the guest picks it up, on your own premises? PPDS rules. Full label.
Assembled in front of the guest when they ask? Non-prepacked.

Cafes with a pastry display and restaurants with a lunch fridge are the ones most often caught out here.

Delivery, takeaway, and online ordering

The duty follows the order, not the dining room. There's no waiter to ask, so the information has to reach the guest another way — and in practice, twice:

Before ordering, on the online menu, wherever the guest is choosing.
With the order, so the person eating it can check what arrived.

That second one matters more than owners expect. Delivery orders get split between people, arrive at parties, and get eaten by someone who never saw the menu. If a bag turns up short or wrong, what to do when a delivery order is missing items covers the recovery — but the allergen information should already be in the bag.

The cleanest version: allergens live on the product in your menu system, so they print on the kitchen ticket and appear on the receipt automatically. No one has to remember.

What an inspector actually looks at

From the reports we hear about, checks land on the same six things almost every time.

The written record. Does it exist, is it dated, does it cover every dish including specials?
Does it match the kitchen? They will pick a dish and read your ingredient labels against it. Stock powder is a favourite, because it hides celery.
The notice. Can a guest see, without asking, that allergen information is available and how to get it?
Ask a waiter. They'll ask a young or part-time member of staff a question about a dish. The answer "I'd have to check with the kitchen, let me get that for you" passes. A guess fails.
Processing aids. Frying oil and dusting flour. This is the row people leave blank.
The specials board. Written today, allergens usually not written at all.

None of that is a trick. Every one is fixable in an afternoon.

What it costs to get it wrong

Enforcement in Europe runs on a ladder, and most restaurants only ever see the first rung.

Stage	What happens
Improvement notice	A written order to fix it, with a deadline. Free, but it's on record
Administrative fine	A few hundred euros for a paperwork failure, rising fast on repeat findings
Serious infringement	In Spain, food safety infringements are graded, with serious cases running into tens of thousands of euros
Closure order	Immediate, and public. Some authorities publish the list
Criminal prosecution	Where a guest is seriously harmed. Restaurant operators in Europe have received custodial sentences after allergy deaths

And then there's the cost that never appears on a form. An allergy incident spreads through reviews and local groups within days. If that happens, read how to reply to bad restaurant reviews before you type anything, and handling angry guests for the conversation in the room.

The business reason, not just the legal one

Compliance is the floor. The reason to do this properly is that it pays.

Allergy guests are group bookings. Someone with a serious allergy doesn't dine alone — they come with friends, family, a birthday. When a waiter says "I'm not sure about that sauce", the whole table leaves. You lose six covers, not one.

They're also the most loyal guests you'll ever get. A restaurant that answers confidently gets booked again, and recommended inside allergy communities that share addresses obsessively. Ask anyone with a coeliac partner how many restaurants they rotate between. It's about four.

Europe runs on tourism. A guest from another country, reading a menu in a language they don't speak, with an allergy they can't explain — if your menu answers that in their language before they ask, you've won a table your neighbour just lost. Multilingual allergen tags do more for a tourist-town restaurant than another photo of the terrace.

Empty midweek tables have a cheap answer. Being the searchable, obviously allergy-friendly option in your town fills Tuesdays. Our notes on filling empty tables on slow weekdays and restaurant marketing that works pair well with this.

Your 10-point compliance checklist

Work down this list. If you can tick all ten, you're in good shape in any European country.

Build a written allergen matrix — every dish down the side, the allergens across the top, dated and owned by one named person.
Include specials, sides, sauces, bread and drinks. Not just the main menu.
Add processing aids — frying oil, dusting flour, shared marinades.
Separate ingredients from cross-contact risk. Two different marks. Never mix them.
Put up a visible notice telling guests allergen information exists and how to get it.
Check your country's method rule — written, written-unasked, or spoken-with-record — and build to it.
Label anything you pack before it's ordered with a full ingredient list, allergens emphasised.
Get allergens onto your online and delivery menus, and onto the order itself.
Train every member of staff, including weekend and seasonal starters, on day one. Our guide to training staff for better service and tips for new waiters both cover the basics.
Review it twice a year, and every single time a supplier or recipe changes.

That's the whole job. Half a day to build, minutes to maintain.

Allergy requests are also modification requests, so the kitchen needs a process — handling off-menu orders covers saying yes without chaos. And if you run several sites, keep one source of truth rather than a folder per branch; multi-location POS problems explains how that drifts.

For what it's worth: Tabres lets you declare 15 allergens per product in every menu language, and freezes them onto each order line and receipt, so the kitchen ticket shows what was declared at the moment of ordering. It's free, with no per-branch fee — our reasoning is public. Use whatever tool suits you; the checklist above works anywhere. If you're weighing options, we compared restaurant management software and explained what a restaurant management system actually is.

Seven mistakes that fail inspections

"Our chef knows." Knowledge isn't a record. The law wants a document.
A folder nobody dated. Undated means unmaintained, and inspectors read it that way.
No notice. You can have a perfect matrix and still fail because no guest could tell it existed.
Specials left out. The board changes daily; the allergen sheet doesn't follow.
"May contain" on everything. Blanket warnings tell a guest nothing, and precautionary labelling rules are tightening across Europe toward measurable thresholds.
Only the digital version. No fallback for the guest who can't scan.
Packing food without labelling it. The PPDS rule, missed by half the cafes with a pastry counter.

Frequently asked questions

Do restaurants legally have to list allergens on the menu in Europe? They must make allergen information available for every dish before the guest orders. Whether it has to be printed on the menu itself depends on the country. Ireland, France and Spain require written information; Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and the Nordic countries allow spoken information when a visible notice points to it and a written record exists.

Which law covers restaurant allergen information in the EU? Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on food information to consumers. Annex II names the 14 allergens. Article 44 covers non-prepacked food and lets each member state set the method of providing the information.

How many allergens must a restaurant declare? Fourteen under EU law. Many kitchens now track a fifteenth — buckwheat — because it causes serious reactions and appears often in gluten-free swaps. The full list is here.

Is a QR code menu enough to meet allergen requirements? It can be, as long as guests can reach it before ordering and you keep a non-digital fallback for anyone who can't scan. Digital menus have the advantage of updating instantly and showing allergens in several languages.

Do small cafes and food trucks have to comply? Yes. There is no exemption for size, turnover, or type of business anywhere in the EU. A one-person coffee cart carries the same duty as a hotel restaurant. If you're selling from home, do I need a licence to sell food from home covers the wider rules.

What about delivery and takeaway orders? The same duty applies. Because there's no waiter to ask, the information must be on the online menu before ordering and travel with the order when it arrives.

Can a waiter just tell the guest instead of writing it down? In several countries, yes — but only with a clearly visible notice saying information is available on request, plus a written record staff can produce. Spoken information with nothing behind it is not compliant anywhere in Europe.

What is PPDS food and does it apply to me? Prepacked for direct sale: food you pack on your premises before the guest chooses it, like a wrapped sandwich or a boxed salad in a chiller. It needs a full ingredient list with allergens emphasised on the label. If you have a display fridge or a pastry counter, it applies to you.

Do allergens have to appear in every menu language? Guests need information they can understand. If you publish your menu in several languages, allergens belong in each of them — which is one reason digital menus win in tourist areas.

Who is legally responsible if a guest has a reaction? The business, not one individual. That's why the system matters more than any single person: a dated written record, a note that reaches the kitchen as text, and a plate handed over by name.

How often should allergen information be updated? Every time a recipe changes, a supplier changes, or a dish goes on the menu — plus a full review twice a year. Supplier reformulations are the quiet risk, because nobody tells you the bread recipe changed.

Here's the honest summary. The allergens are the same in every European country. The method is not, and that's the part almost everyone misses. Find out whether your country wants it written, written-and-unasked, or spoken-with-a-record — then build one dated matrix that covers every dish, sauce, special and drink, and put it somewhere a waiter can reach in ten seconds.

Do that, and the inspection stops being stressful. Better still, the guest who has spent years being told "I'm not really sure" finds a restaurant that just answers the question — and comes back with the whole table.