How we check

The 14 EU allergens

EU law (Regulation 1169/2011, Annex II) lists 14 allergens that every ingredient list must declare and highlight. You can choose each of them:

• Cereals containing gluten: wheat (including spelt and khorasan), rye, barley and oats.
• Tree nuts: almond, hazelnut, walnut, cashew, pecan, Brazil nut, pistachio and macadamia.
• Crustaceans, and molluscs (two separate allergens).
• Eggs, fish, peanuts, soy, milk, celery, mustard, sesame and lupin.
• Sulphur dioxide and sulphites (E220–E228).
• Lactose isn't an EU allergen of its own (it's part of milk). We added it for people with lactose intolerance: lactose-free products are fine for it.

Gluten or a cereal allergy?

• “Gluten” is for coeliac disease and gluten intolerance. It covers wheat, rye, barley and oats. Products labelled gluten-free (at most 20 mg gluten per kg, Regulation 828/2014) are fine, including gluten-free oats and gluten-free wheat starch.
• “Very low gluten” (at most 100 mg per kg) is a different claim: we show it as “check”, not as fine.
• A cereal allergy is about the cereal itself. Choose wheat, rye, barley or oats under “Choose in more detail”: they count even in gluten-free products, because gluten-free wheat starch is still wheat.
• Malt is almost always made from barley. When the label doesn't say which cereal, malt is a “check” for barley.
• When a label says “gluten” without naming the cereal, each cereal you chose gets a “check”, unless the ingredients name the cereal.

Tree nuts

• “Tree nuts” means all 8 nuts named in EU law. If you only react to some, choose them one by one under “Choose in more detail”.
• “Nuts” without saying which is a “check” for each nut you chose, unless the ingredients name the nuts.
• Pine nuts, chestnuts, coconut, nutmeg and tiger nuts are not tree nuts in EU law, so they don't count. If you react to them, add them under “Other ingredients”.
• Peanuts are a separate allergen.

What EU law doesn't count

Some products made from allergens are exempt from allergen labelling, because processing removes the allergen. We don't count them either, and the result says when we skipped one:

• Glucose syrup, dextrose and maltodextrin made from wheat, and glucose syrup made from barley.
• Alcohol distilled from cereals, such as vodka or whisky.
• Fully refined soy oil, and tocopherols (vitamin E, E306) and plant sterols made from soy.
• Fish gelatine used to carry vitamins, and fish gelatine or isinglass used to clear beer and wine.
• Lactitol (made from milk sugar), and whey or nuts used for distilled alcohol.

“May contain”

• “May contain” (traces from shared production lines) is voluntary in EU law. We show it as “check”.
• If small traces aren't a problem for you, turn them off in Preferences. Diets never use them.

Highlighted words on the label

• EU law requires allergens to stand out in the ingredient list. Swedish product data usually writes them in capitals (VETEmjöl, skumMJÖLK), and Open Food Facts marks them with underscores.
• We show highlighted words in bold. When the label highlights a word we don't recognise, we mark it with a blue question mark and ask you to check the pack: it is probably an allergen under a name we don't know yet.
• Testers: please report those words, so we can teach the app.

What the results mean

• Found: an ingredient you avoid is listed.
• Check: something may contain it, such as unspecified flour, malt, “may contain” or a highlighted word we don't recognise.
• Not found: none of your choices were found in the information we have.
• Can't confirm: the ingredient list is missing, incomplete, old or in a language we can't read.

Limits

• Product data comes from GS1 Sweden, Coop, Ditt Svenska Skafferi and Open Food Facts. It can be incomplete, out of date or wrong, and recipes change.
• Diets (vegetarian, vegan, halal, kosher) aren't defined in EU law. We look for obvious ingredients; only certification can guarantee them.
• This is not medical advice. With a severe allergy, always check the pack and follow your doctor's advice.