Allergy alerts: a guide for people with food allergies
Last reviewed 5 October 2026 against the sources listed below.
An allergy alert is published when a food contains an allergen that isn't on the label, or isn't labelled properly (for example, not emphasised in the ingredients, or not in English). If you have that allergy, the advice is not to eat the product.
The 14 allergens that must be declared
UK food law lists 14 allergens that must be declared on labels. GOV.UK lists them as: 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; and sulphur dioxide or sulphites at levels above 10mg per kilogram or per litre.
Which allergens are missed most often
Alerts since 2018 by allergen (one alert can involve several):
- Milk270 (30 in last 12 months)
- Gluten171 (21 in last 12 months)
- Soya112 (14 in last 12 months)
- Nuts111 (15 in last 12 months)
- Peanuts94 (14 in last 12 months)
- Egg87 (7 in last 12 months)
- Mustard69 (7 in last 12 months)
- Sulphites53 (1 in last 12 months)
- Sesame42 (4 in last 12 months)
- Fish26 (2 in last 12 months)
- Crustaceans24 (1 in last 12 months)
- Celery22 (3 in last 12 months)
- Molluscs13 (0 in last 12 months)
- Lupin4 (1 in last 12 months)
What "may contain" means
GOV.UK explains that precautionary allergen labelling, such as "may contain milk" or "not suitable for people with a nut allergy", tells customers that traces of an allergen may have got into a product accidentally. Food businesses are not legally required to use it, so the absence of a "may contain" warning doesn't guarantee a product is free from traces. A product that has a "may contain" warning is not recalled for that allergen. Allergy alerts are about allergens that should have been declared and weren't.
Staying informed
- Follow the feed for your allergen, e.g. milk or peanuts (all feeds).
- Turn on browser alerts for the allergens you care about.
- Sign up to the FSA's official allergy alert emails and texts.
- Allergy charities share alerts with members: Allergy UK, Anaphylaxis UK, and Coeliac UK for gluten.
In an emergency
The NHS says that in anaphylaxis you should use an adrenaline auto-injector if you have one and call 999. See NHS anaphylaxis guidance.
Sources
- GOV.UK: Understanding food labelling: allergen labelling
- GOV.UK (FSA): Precautionary allergen labelling
- GOV.UK: Sign up for food safety alerts
- NHS: Anaphylaxis