EU-14 Allergens

What the 14 allergens are

EU Regulation 1169/2011 requires the following allergens to be declared on the label of any food packaged or served in the European Union. AreaCacao labels them with these names:

1. Gluten (cereals containing gluten).
2. Crustaceans.
3. Eggs.
4. Fish.
5. Peanuts.
6. Soy.
7. Milk (including lactose).
8. Tree nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, etc.).
9. Celery.
10. Mustard.
11. Sesame.
12. Sulfites (sulfur dioxide, above 10 mg/kg).
13. Lupin.
14. Mollusks.

How they appear in AreaCacao

In the catalog listing

The Allergens column of the catalog shows how many EU-14 allergens each ingredient declares, a dash if the sheet declares none, or Undeclared if the sheet doesn't confirm its allergens. You can narrow the listing to sheets with allergens by checking the With allergens box (undeclared sheets aren't included in that filter).

On the ingredient sheet

Inside the Nutrition Facts tab of the sheet there's an EU-14 allergens block that lists the declared ones as tags. If the sheet declares it contains none, you'll see "No allergens: this ingredient declares none of the EU-14."; if it doesn't confirm them, "Allergens undeclared: this ingredient does not confirm whether it contains any of the 14."

Undeclared is not "no allergens"

A sheet can be in three states: it contains certain allergens, it contains none (declared), or it's undeclared (not known yet). On your custom ingredients you choose the third with the "I don't know its allergens yet (leave them undeclared)" checkbox, or with the value undeclared in the allergens column when you import. A recipe that uses an undeclared ingredient can't state that it has no allergens: its allergens block warns that the calculation is incomplete.

In the recipe editor

In the ingredients tab of the recipe editor, the Allergens block gathers the allergens the recipe contains through the composition of its ingredients. With Edit allergens you also check the ones it May contain (traces / cross-contamination) based on your workshop, and add an optional note. If any ingredient's information is missing (a sheet that couldn't be loaded, or with undeclared allergens), you'll see "Incomplete calculation: the allergens of … are missing (data sheet could not be loaded, or its allergens are undeclared). They are not included — review them before labeling."

On your recipe's A4 sheet

When you print a recipe, the allergens inherited from all of its ingredients are aggregated into a dedicated section of the sheet, along with the regulatory disclaimer. See Print a recipe.

Why it matters

• Legal compliance with EU Regulation 1169/2011.
• Professional communication with HoReCa, retail, or end-consumer clients.
• Safety: for a custom order involving critical allergens, always check the listing before serving.

Honest limitations

• An ingredient's allergens depend on its manufacturer's declaration. If your supplier changes their production line and adds an allergen through cross-contamination, the catalog sheet won't reflect it until it's updated.
• Traces and cross-contamination are the workshop's responsibility. The ingredient sheet declares only intentional allergens; you mark traces on the recipe (May contain) based on your own process traceability.

If you need to adjust the allergen listing

The catalog is shared and read-only: an ingredient's allergens can't be edited from the interface. To reflect your workshop's reality, you have these paths:

• At the recipe level, check traces and cross-contamination under Edit allergens (May contain) and add a note if needed; they appear on the May contain traces of: line of the A4 sheet.
• At the account level, create custom ingredients (one by one or with Import and export) with the allergen list your supplier declares.