Allergen matrix: what it is and how to keep one up to date

An allergen matrix is a simple chart: your dishes down one side, the allergens across the top, and a mark wherever a dish contains one. It is one of the most useful documents a kitchen keeps, and one of the easiest to let slip out of date.

By Dale Baker ·

What goes in it

In the UK and the EU, food businesses must be able to tell customers about 14 allergens: gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soy, milk, tree nuts, celery, mustard, sesame, sulphites, lupin and molluscs. Those 14 are the usual columns.

In Australia and New Zealand the list is set by Food Standards Australia New Zealand and is not identical, so build your matrix from your own regulator's list.

How to build one

  • List every dish, side, sauce and drink as it is served, garnishes included
  • Check every ingredient's label, including what is inside bought in sauces, breads and stocks
  • Mark each allergen against each dish
  • Record the date and who checked it
  • Keep a copy where front of house staff can see it during service

Keeping it accurate

A matrix goes wrong when the food changes and the chart does not: a supplier swaps a product, the bread changes, a special goes on for a week. Make updating the matrix part of changing a dish, and check it again whenever a supplier changes.

From the kitchen chart to the guest

A matrix is written for staff. Guests need the same information on the dish they are looking at, in a language they can read, and they still need to be able to ask.

How MenuPal uses your allergen information

  • You mark the allergens on each dish; MenuPal never decides them for you
  • Guests see them in their own language, using wording checked once for each language rather than generated for each dish
  • When you import a menu, allergens are only filled in where your menu states them, and you check every dish before publishing
  • Every dish with allergen information reminds guests to speak to staff

Official guidance

The rules on what you must tell customers, and how, come from your food regulator: the Food Standards Agency in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, Food Standards Scotland, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, Food Standards Australia New Zealand, and in New Zealand also the Ministry for Primary Industries and your local council. Check their current guidance; this page is not legal advice.

Questions

Does MenuPal decide which allergens a dish contains?

No. You mark them. MenuPal shows what you mark, in each guest's language.

Your menu, in every guest's language

Build your allergen menu