The 14 Allergens Explained and How Venues Stay FSA Compliant at Events

Allergen management is not optional and it is not something to improvise on a busy night. UK law requires venues to declare 14 named allergens, and at event scale, with dozens of guests and shifting menus, getting this right by hand is genuinely hard. This guide explains the 14 allergens clearly, sets out what FSA compliance means at events, and shows how venues remove the risk by collecting allergen information automatically.

The 14 allergens you must declare

Under UK food information law, these 14 allergens must be communicated to guests whenever they are present in a dish:

• Celery
• Cereals containing gluten (such as wheat, rye, barley and oats)
• Crustaceans (such as prawns, crab and lobster)
• Eggs
• Fish
• Lupin
• Milk
• Molluscs (such as mussels and oysters)
• Mustard
• Tree nuts (such as almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts)
• Peanuts
• Sesame
• Soybeans
• Sulphur dioxide and sulphites

Beyond these statutory 14, many guests have other dietary needs and intolerances, so a robust process must capture custom requirements too, not just tick the legal boxes.

What FSA compliance actually means at events

The Food Standards Agency expects allergen information to be accurate, available and clearly communicated. At an event that means three things must hold true: you have collected each guest’s allergen information correctly, that information stays tied to the right guest and the right dish, and it reaches the kitchen and floor in a form they can act on without ambiguity.

The weak point is almost always the handoffs. Allergy notes get typed into a booking email, copied to a spreadsheet, then transcribed onto a kitchen sheet. Each copy is a chance for an error, and at event volume those chances stack up fast. Collecting allergens automatically from the guest removes those handoffs entirely.

Why manual allergen tracking is so risky

Spreadsheets and PDFs were never built for safety-critical data under time pressure. A note can land on the wrong row, a late menu change can leave an allergen unflagged, or the kitchen can be working from yesterday’s version of the file. None of these are unusual, and any one of them can have serious consequences. The honest fix is not more careful copying, it is removing the copying.

How automated allergen collection works

With a platform like Creventa, the guest receives a personalised, branded request and selects their meal along with any of the 14 allergens or custom dietary needs. That data is locked to their order and their seat. When you generate reports, the chef’s report and food pass surface every allergen clearly at the click of a button, fully FSA compliant, with no manual lists in between. The approach stays consistent whether you are running a gala dinner or a Tuesday service.

Because allergens sit inside the wider event platform, they connect to seating, pre-orders and reporting rather than living in a separate file. That integration is also what keeps food waste down, often by around 20 percent, because numbers and dietaries are confirmed and accurate.

Allergens across different venue types

The legal duty is the same everywhere, but the volume and format differ. Hotels juggle weddings and large functions, multi-site operators need one consistent process across brands via restaurant group tools, and high-throughput venues such as stadiums face allergen management at real scale. Whatever the setting, the principle holds: collect once, from the guest, and carry it through untouched. For the full operational picture, pair this with our event planning checklist.

Frequently asked questions

What are the 14 allergens?

The 14 allergens that must be declared under UK law are celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, tree nuts, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, and sulphur dioxide or sulphites. All must be communicated clearly to guests.

How do venues stay FSA compliant at events?

Venues stay compliant by collecting allergen information accurately from each guest, keeping it tied to that guest’s order, and surfacing it clearly to the kitchen and floor. Automating this collection removes the transcription errors that manual lists introduce.

Why is manual allergen tracking risky?

Manual lists rely on copying allergy notes between spreadsheets, emails and kitchen sheets, and every copy is a chance for an error. At event volume this risk multiplies. Capturing allergens directly from the guest and carrying that data through to the chef’s report removes those handoffs.