Menu Design

Allergen disclosure

Identifying ingredients on a menu that commonly cause allergic reactions (peanuts, tree nuts, dairy, soy, eggs, wheat, fish, shellfish, sesame). Required by law in many jurisdictions; best practice everywhere. Digital menus typically use icons or filters.

Why this matters for restaurants: Allergen disclosure is now a legal requirement in the EU (1169/2011), UK (Natasha's Law, 2021), and California (ADDE Act, 2025). Failure to disclose can carry civil liability if a customer with a known allergy is harmed. Printed menus typically use a footnote ("Contains nuts") or a separate allergen booklet — both are easy to miss.

Digital menus do this better with per-item structured tags (icons for the 14 EU allergens + the 9 FDA-recognized US allergens including sesame), filterable views ("show me only nut-free items"), and live-update capability when a chef swaps an ingredient mid-service. See our Menu Allergen Checker for a free EU + FDA allergen audit on existing menus.

Related Terms

Compliance
Natasha's Law
UK Food Information (Amendment) Regulations 2019, effective October 2021, requiring full ingredient and allergen labeling on all pre-packaged food made on-site. Named after Natasha Ednan-Laperouse who died from an allergic reaction. Digital menus help compliance.
Compliance
EU 1169/2011
EU Food Information for Consumers regulation requiring disclosure of 14 named allergens on all food sold to consumers in the EU and EEA. Applies to digital and printed menus equally. Implemented in UK as Natasha's Law (2021).
Menu Design
Dietary tag
A label on a menu item indicating dietary suitability — vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, halal, kosher, dairy-free, organic. Digital menus typically render these as icons or filterable categories. Distinct from full allergen disclosure.
Compliance
ADDE Act (California Allergen Disclosure)
The California Anaphylaxis Disclosure and Disclaimer Education Act (effective 2025), requiring restaurants to disclose specified allergens in menu items. Applies to chain locations meeting volume thresholds. Digital menus simplify compliance via filtering and tagging.

See Allergen disclosure in Action

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