Allergen matrix for the 14 UK allergens
A grid of your dishes against all 14 allergens that have to be declared in the UK. Fill in the spreadsheet, print the PDF for the kitchen wall, and stop answering allergen questions from memory.
Direct downloads. No email, no sign-up, and nothing to unsubscribe from afterwards.
What it is
A matrix with your dishes down the side and the 14 declarable allergens across the top. You mark each cell, and what you end up with is a single sheet that answers almost every allergen question a guest or an inspector will ask.
The spreadsheet has room for 60 dishes and a dropdown that only accepts Y or M, so the grid stays consistent when several people fill it in. Cells colour themselves as you go, which makes a row of unchecked blanks obvious.
The PDF is the same grid laid out for A4 landscape, with 18 dish rows and a reference page explaining where each allergen commonly hides. It is designed to be printed and pinned up rather than read on a screen.
What is in it
All 14 declarable allergens
Celery, cereals with gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphites and tree nuts.
Ingredient and cross-contact
Y for an ingredient, M for a cross-contact risk. Two different facts that guests ask about separately.
Y or M only
The spreadsheet rejects anything else, so you do not end up with a grid of ticks, crosses, yeses and question marks.
Colour as you type
Ingredient cells turn red and cross-contact cells amber, so a half-finished row is visible at a glance.
Reference sheet
Where each allergen commonly hides, from soy sauce containing wheat to Worcestershire sauce containing fish.
Printable PDF
A4 landscape, header repeated, room for the business name, the review date and who checked it.
How to fill it in
List your dishes
One row per dish as it appears on the menu, including specials you run often and anything sold at the counter.
Work from specifications
Go through each dish against the ingredient specification for every component, not from memory. Sauces, dressings, marinades and oils are where allergens hide.
Mark ingredients, then cross-contact
Y where the allergen is in the dish. Then walk the kitchen and add M wherever shared equipment, oil or prep space creates a real risk.
Date it and reprint
Put the review date and the name of whoever checked it at the top. Redo it whenever a recipe or a supplier changes, and reprint the wall copy.
Who it is for
Independent restaurants, cafes, takeaways, bakeries and mobile caterers in the UK who need a written allergen record and do not want to buy software for it.
It is a working record sheet, not legal advice and not a compliance certificate. It helps you capture what is in your food accurately; the rules for how that information must reach the customer are the Food Standards Agency's, and they differ depending on how the food is sold.
