Eating out or ordering food when you have an allergy
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1. What restaurants and takeaways must tell you about allergens
There are 14 allergens businesses must tell you about.
How and when they tell you depends on whether you’re buying:
- food in a restaurant
- a takeaway
- prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) food, for example, boxed sandwiches
This guide is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg).
Restaurants
Restaurants must give you accurate information about allergens, including if food contains any of the 14 allergens businesses must tell you about. You might be able to get this from an online menu before you go.
You can call ahead to ask:
- if they offer meals that are suitable for you
- how the food is handled in the kitchen and if your food could be contaminated by something you’re allergic to
You can remind them and ask questions again when you go to the restaurant. You can also ask if the ingredients in a meal have been changed
You can ask them to cook you something different, but they do not have to.
Takeaways
Businesses selling takeaways must tell you if any of the 14 allergens are in their food. They need to do this both:
- before you buy the food - either in writing on a website or menu, or by phone
- when the food is delivered - either in writing, such as with stickers on food or a menu, or in person by the delivery driver
If you’re ordering for several people, you can ask the business to label the containers so you know which one is yours.
Prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) food
This is food that’s made and packaged at the place where it’s sold, before you buy it. For example, boxed sandwiches or wrapped up burgers.
These should be labelled with the name of the food and an ingredients list with any of the 14 allergens businesses must tell you about emphasised.
Get more information on PPDS food.
2. Allergens businesses must tell you about
Businesses must tell you if their food contains any of these 14 allergens:
- celery
- cereals containing gluten (such as wheat, rye, barley and oats)
- crustaceans (such as prawns, crabs and lobsters)
- eggs
- fish
- lupin (including lupin seeds and products made from them, like lupin flour)
- milk
- molluscs (such as mussels and oysters)
- mustard
- nuts, specifically tree nuts (such as almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, brazil nuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios and macadamia nuts)
- peanuts
- sesame
- soybeans
- sulphur dioxide and sulphites (at a concentration of more than ten parts per million)
If you’re allergic to something else, you can ask the business if their food contains it.
This guide is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg).
3. If you have an allergic reaction
If you feel ill or have an allergic reaction after eating, get medical help immediately.
The NHS has information on and how to treat them.
If you have an adrenaline auto-injector (AAI), carry it with you and use it if you think you’re having an allergic reaction.
This guide is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg).
Reporting an allergic reaction
Contact the business that sold you the food and tell them.
You can also report a food safety incident to your local council’s food safety team.
Get support
There are several organisations that can support you with living with a food allergy, including:
4. Sign up for allergy alerts
You can sign up to get alerts when food products have been sold with missing or incorrect allergy information.
The alerts are free. They’re sent by email or text message. They’ll tell you which product is affected and what to do if you have bought it.
This guide is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg).
You can choose to get alerts for all allergens or just your food allergy.