Since December 2014, EU Regulation 1169/2011 has required every food business — restaurants and cafés included — to tell guests when a dish contains any of fourteen listed allergens. Not on request. Not in a binder nobody can find. Available, accurate and easy to reach before the guest orders.
The fourteen allergens
- Cereals containing gluten · Crustaceans · Eggs · Fish
- Peanuts · Soybeans · Milk · Nuts
- Celery · Mustard · Sesame · Sulphites
- Lupin · Molluscs
Member states enforce this differently — some accept verbal information if a sign says to ask staff, others require written declarations — but inspections and fines are real everywhere, and the reputational cost of an allergic reaction is worse than any fine.
Why paper fails at this
The recipe changes, the supplier changes, the sauce now has mustard in it — and the laminated allergen matrix behind the bar is six months old. Paper compliance rots silently. The kitchen knows the truth; the document doesn't.
Digital menus make compliance a side effect
When allergens are a field on the dish itself, updating the recipe and updating the declaration are the same action. Every table, every language, every day — one source of truth. Guests with allergies stop interrogating staff and start ordering with confidence, which shows up in the reviews.
“As a coeliac this is the first menu in months I could order from without interrogating the waiter.”
On karta, all fourteen EU allergens are first-class fields on every menu item — shown as labels on the dish card, in the detail view, and in every language your menu speaks. It's the difference between compliance you maintain and compliance you get for free.
See allergen labels on a live menu →