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Running a food business

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Allergies

You must manage food allergies when preparing and selling food. This includes providing accurate information, avoiding cross-contamination and appropriately training staff.

The allergens you must manage are:

  • celery
  • cereals containing gluten - including wheat, rye, barley and oats
  • crustaceans - including prawns, crab and lobster
  • eggs
  • fish
  • lupin
  • milk
  • molluscs - including squid, mussels, cockles, whelks and snails
  • mustard
  • nuts
  • peanuts
  • sesame seeds
  • soya beans
  • sulphur dioxide or sulphites at levels above 10mg per kilogram or per litre

This guide is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg).

Allergen information

You must be able to provide accurate information about allergens. This is a legal requirement.

You should keep written allergen information and put procedures in place to:

  • update allergen information whenever recipes or ingredients change
  • make sure all staff know about recipe changes
  • make sure kitchen staff know when someone has ordered a meal without an allergen
  • always serve food to the correct customer

You should have a process for giving customers accurate allergen information, including how staff should:

  • respond to allergen questions
  • check allergen information is accurate before answering
  • check if they’re unsure

Make sure staff know what to do if a customer has an allergic reaction.

Avoiding cross-contamination

You must prevent allergen cross-contamination.

As well as general food hygiene procedures to avoid cross-contamination, you should also have procedures in place to:

  • check deliveries to make sure everything is the same as what you ordered
  • store and label all ingredients to avoid cross-contamination
  • deal with spillages of one ingredient into another ingredient

You can use the allergen checklist for food businesses.

Staff training

You should make sure all staff are given appropriate training to manage allergens in their role.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) provides free online food allergy training.

Additional guidance

Check the FSA’s additional allergen guidance for food businesses.

There is also guidance on:

View a printable version of the whole guide

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