A sample page of the actual document
A wrong, out-of-date, or missing allergen line can put a customer into anaphylaxis and kill them. It also breaks the Food Information Regulations 2014, where giving false or misleading allergen information is a criminal offence carrying an unlimited fine, not just a hygiene black mark. A correct matrix is what lets any team member answer "what's in this?" the same way every time.
This free 14 allergen matrix maps every dish on your menu against the 14 allergens UK law requires you to declare, one grid the whole team can check before answering a customer.
Food Information Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/1855), Regulation 5 and Schedule (the 14 allergens) and Regulation 10 (allergen information for non-prepacked food), which implement retained Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex II; FSA Food Allergen Labelling and Information Requirements Technical Guidance, Part 2: Non-Prepacked Food, and the FSA Best Practice Guidance on Allergen Information for Non-Prepacked Foods including the distance-selling/pre-ordering section (food.gov.uk).
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What’s on it
Everything that matters, nothing that does not. Here is the full list, exactly as it appears on the template.
Good to know
Sulphur dioxide and sulphites are the only one of the 14 allergens with a declaration threshold: you must declare them only when the finished dish, as served, holds more than 10 mg per kg or 10 mg per litre (measured as total SO2). Below that you do not. Every other allergen must be declared no matter how small the trace, so do not apply that 10 mg rule to anything else; many operators wrongly do, and either over-declare (creating noise staff stop trusting) or under-declare a genuine allergen.
Source: Food Information Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/1855), Regulation 5 and Schedule (the 14 allergens) and Regulation 10 (allergen information for non-prepacked food), which implement retained Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex II; FSA Food Allergen Labelling and Information Requirements Technical Guidance, Part 2: Non-Prepacked Food, and the FSA Best Practice Guidance on Allergen Information for Non-Prepacked Foods including the distance-selling/pre-ordering section (food.gov.uk).
Good to know
Celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, and tree nuts. Those are the fourteen that UK food information rules require you to declare when they are used as ingredients.
The matrix itself is not named in law, but you must be able to give accurate allergen information for everything you serve. A completed matrix is the simplest way to hold that information somewhere the whole team can use, and the FSA provides the allergen list this template is built on.
A wrong, out-of-date, or missing allergen line can put a customer into anaphylaxis and kill them. It also breaks the Food Information Regulations 2014, where giving false or misleading allergen information is a criminal offence carrying an unlimited fine, not just a hygiene black mark. A correct matrix is what lets any team member answer "what's in this?" the same way every time.
Sulphur dioxide and sulphites are the only one of the 14 allergens with a declaration threshold: you must declare them only when the finished dish, as served, holds more than 10 mg per kg or 10 mg per litre (measured as total SO2). Below that you do not. Every other allergen must be declared no matter how small the trace, so do not apply that 10 mg rule to anything else; many operators wrongly do, and either over-declare (creating noise staff stop trusting) or under-declare a genuine allergen.
The PDF downloads the moment you check out, prints sharp in black and white, and opens on any phone. It is reviewed for August 2026 and you get any future update free when the official guidance changes.
Your temperature log is the main evidence that your cold storage is actually working. A missing entry, or an out-of-range reading nobody acted on, is what turns a single fridge fault into a food poisoning case and a failed hygiene inspection. This list makes every entry a real number, taken at the right time, with the action recorded when something goes wrong.
A food safety daily diary is the written proof that your food safety system is actually being run, not just sitting in a folder. On inspection an Environmental Health Officer treats a blank or gap-filled diary as evidence the system is failing, while a complete one with real numbers is your legal defence if someone falls ill. Filled in properly it also catches a warm fridge or an undercooked batch before it reaches a customer.
Cooking and reheating temperature records are the main evidence an Environmental Health Officer (EHO) uses to judge whether your food safety system actually works on the floor, not just on paper. Ticks, the word 'OK', or numbers all written up at the end of the shift are treated as no record at all, and that alone can drop your hygiene rating and trigger a return visit. Done properly, this log catches food that never reached a safe core temperature and flags failing equipment before it causes a food poisoning incident.