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Free tool
Free allergen menu generator: chart and PDF for your restaurant.
Make an allergen chart for your restaurant, cafe or bar for free, with no sign-up. Type your dishes, tick which of the 14 allergens each one contains, and you get a clean table you can print or save as a PDF. If you serve Spanish speakers, you can add the Spanish names to the key. Everything happens in your browser, so nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Build your chart.
What you type stays in your browser and is never sent to a server. So you do not lose your work, we save it in this browser on this device. “Start again” deletes it.
How it works.
- Type the name of your venue. It becomes the title of the table.
- Add your dishes. Give each a name and, if you like, a section such as Starters, Mains or Desserts. The table groups dishes by section. Use the dish note for a detail, such as which cereal carries the gluten.
- Tick the allergens in each dish. Check your recipe, the labels on your ingredients and your suppliers’ spec sheets. The tool guesses nothing: it shows what you tick.
- Check the table. The result appears under the buttons with its key. Turn on “English + Spanish” if you serve Spanish speakers.
- Print or save as PDF. In the print window choose your printer or “Save as PDF”. It comes out in landscape with the table only.
Come back when a recipe or a supplier changes, correct the dish and print again. Take the old sheet out of the dining room.
What if your menu changes often?
A printed sheet goes out of date as soon as a recipe changes or a new product comes in. If your menu changes every week, reprinting each time is one more job.
A digital menu with an allergen filter works differently. You mark the allergens once on each dish, and when you change one, the menu every table sees updates itself. A guest with an allergy turns on the filter and sees only what they can eat.
See Carta by OnePDA, a digital menu with QR codes from €9 a month
Questions.
Do I have to have an allergen chart?
In the EU, and in the UK where the same list applies as retained law, information on the 14 allergens must be available to customers for food sold without packaging (Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011). Each country decides how, and the rule does not call for a document named an allergen chart. A table like this one is a common way to have the information ready. In the US, the reference list is the nine major food allergens, and the rules for restaurants depend on where you operate, so check your state and local requirements.
How do I save the chart as a PDF?
Press “Print or save as PDF”. In your browser’s print window, choose “Save as PDF” instead of a printer and confirm. The PDF holds the table and its key only.
What happens to the data I type?
It stays in your browser. The tool sends nothing to our servers. So you do not lose your work, it is saved in this browser on this device, and “Start again” deletes it.
How do I know which allergens a dish contains?
Check the recipe, the label of every ingredient and your suppliers’ spec sheets. Look for what hides: sauces, stocks, batters, a frying oil shared by several dishes, and a supplier changing a product. The tool displays what you tick and does not check it.
Is the US allergen list the same as the EU one?
No. The EU list has 14 allergens. The US list of major food allergens has nine: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame. Celery, mustard, lupin, molluscs and sulphites are on the EU list and not on the US one. This tool follows the EU list.
What the law says.
Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 requires information on 14 allergens (Annex II) to be available to customers for food sold without packaging. Read the English text on EUR-Lex. The 14 allergens are: cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk, nuts, celery, mustard, sesame seeds, sulphur dioxide and sulphites at more than 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/l, lupin and molluscs.
This is the EU list, and it also applies in the UK as retained law. The US “major food allergens” list differs: it has nine, which are milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame. See the US Food and Drug Administration page on food allergies.
This tool helps you present that information. It does not replace checking your recipes and your suppliers, which is your business’s responsibility.
Spanish version: Carta de alérgenos gratis.