Tool · Allergens
Check an ingredients list for allergens
Paste an ingredients list — Foodlex marks the 14 allergens listed in Annex II of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011. Free, no sign-up, and everything stays in your browser.
A first pass based on word patterns, not a legally binding declaration. An empty result is no guarantee that a product is free from allergens. Before you print a label, have the allergen list verified by a qualified person against the actual recipe.
The 14 allergens of Annex II
Annex II of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 lists 14 groups of “substances or products causing allergies or intolerances”. The checker looks through your text for typical ingredients and word parts belonging to each group. This is the list as the Regulation words it:
- Cereals containing gluten — wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt, kamut or their hybridised strains
- Crustaceans and products thereof
- Eggs and products thereof
- Fish and products thereof
- Peanuts and products thereof
- Soybeans and products thereof
- Milk and products thereof (including lactose)
- Nuts — almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecan nuts, Brazil nuts, pistachio nuts, macadamia or Queensland nuts
- Celery and products thereof
- Mustard and products thereof
- Sesame seeds and products thereof
- Sulphur dioxide and sulphites at concentrations of more than 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/litre
- Lupin and products thereof
- Molluscs and products thereof
The Regulation also names exceptions within some groups — for example wheat-based glucose syrups, fully refined soybean oil and fish gelatine used as a fining agent. The checker does not apply those exceptions; it flags the group and leaves the judgement to you.
How the check works — and where it stops
The checker matches your text against patterns for each allergen group (for example wheat, butter, soy lecithin) and takes simple exclusions such as “gluten-free” into account. It is deliberately permissive — better one allergen too many than one missed. Hits marked medium (for example sulphites in wine or dried fruit) deserve a closer look.
What the check cannot do: find hidden allergens that never appear in the ingredients text (celery inside a mixture declared only as “spices”, say), or make the legal assessment of your particular recipe.
It understands German too. The patterns cover both languages, so a German ingredients list works just as well as an English one.
What the Regulation requires on the label
Naming the allergen is not enough on its own. Article 21(1)(b) says the name of the substance or product as listed in Annex II “shall be emphasised through a typeset that clearly distinguishes it from the rest of the list of ingredients, for example by means of the font, style or background colour”. In practice that usually means setting the allergen in bold inside the ingredients list — not the whole ingredient, but the Annex II name within it.
This checker is general information and does not replace legal advice. What counts is the wording of the Regulation in force (Annex II of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011). Wording checked against the consolidated English text, CELEX 02011R1169-20180101.