What are the 14 allergens to declare?
The list is the one in Annex II of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, known as the “INCO” regulation. Any ingredient derived from one of these substances that is still present in the dish, even in an altered form, must be brought to the customer’s attention (French Consumer Code, article R412-12).
- Cereals containing gluten: wheat (such as spelt and khorasan wheat), rye, barley, oats or their hybridised strains, and products made from these cereals
- Crustaceans and products made from crustaceans
- Eggs and products made from eggs
- Fish and products made from fish
- Peanuts and products made from peanuts
- Soybeans and products made from soybeans
- Milk and products made from milk (including lactose)
- Nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, macadamia nuts, Brazil nuts, Queensland nuts, pistachios) and products made from them
- Celery and products made from celery
- Mustard and products made from mustard
- Sesame seeds and products made from sesame seeds
- Sulphur dioxide and sulphites at concentrations of more than 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/litre
- Lupin and products made from lupin
- Molluscs and products made from molluscs
What must be displayed for meals served on the premises?
The French rules come from Decree No 2015-447 of 17 April 2015, applied since 1 July 2015; they now appear in articles R412-12 to R412-16 of the French Consumer Code.
Where meals are offered for consumption on the premises, article R412-14 of the French Consumer Code requires customers to be informed “in writing, legibly and visibly”: either of the allergen information itself, or of how it is made available to them.
In the second case, customers must be able to access it “directly and freely”, in writing. The service-public.fr page puts it another way: customers should have neither to look for the information nor to ask for it.
On what medium?
Service-public.fr mentions a chalkboard, a binder listing the allergens in the dishes served, a written mention on the menus, or any other system customers can access directly and freely. Each has its constraints.
| Format | What to plan for |
|---|---|
| The menu | A mention for each dish, updated whenever a recipe changes. |
| A chalkboard | Visible from the dining room, rewritten when the menu changes. |
| A binder or folder | One sheet per dish, and a written notice, visible in the dining room, telling customers where to find it. |
What about takeaway?
For food that is not prepacked and is offered for sale, or packed on the spot at the customer’s request, article R412-13 requires the information to appear on the food itself or close to it, with no possible doubt about which product it refers to.
The official guidance pages do not all say the same thing about takeaway food. If in doubt about your business, ask your departmental consumer protection office (DDPP, direction départementale de la protection des populations).
What must your suppliers provide?
Every delivery of food to a restaurant comes with a document stating the allergens present (article R412-16). Keep it: it is the basis of your own allergen table, dish by dish.
How do you keep the information up to date?
The hard part is not displaying it once, but staying accurate when the menu changes.
- A table, dish by dish: the 14 allergens in columns, a cross when the ingredient is present.
- An update with every new dish, new recipe or new supplier.
- The whole team knows where the information is, in the dining room as in the kitchen.
- The same dish names on the menu in the dining room and on the online menu.
Sources
French Consumer Code (Code de la consommation), articles R412-12 to R412-16, on Légifrance (version in force on 2 November 2026).
Service-public.fr, “Which allergens must be listed on a food product?” (fact sheet F32192, checked on 23 October 2025).
Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of 25 October 2011 on the provision of food information to consumers (known as “INCO”), Annex II.
Decree No 2015-447 of 17 April 2015 on consumer information about allergens and non-prepacked foods (décret n° 2015-447 relatif à l’information des consommateurs sur les allergènes et les denrées alimentaires non préemballées).
And at 3E Tech?
The restaurant’s OuiTAP website has an allergen page next to the online menu: your customers can check it on their phone before ordering. It comes in addition to the written information in the dining room; to find out whether your display meets your obligations, contact the DDPP.