Allergen labelling step by step

Name: Allergen labelling step by step
Uploaded: 2026-10-17
Description: How to declare the 14 allergens and the traces of your products on the label, in the showcase and on the menu, from the ingredients to printing.

All plans

How to declare the 14 allergens and the traces of your products on the label, in the showcase and on the menu, from the ingredients to printing.

What it is for

A wrongly declared allergen is the labelling mistake that worries a bakery most, and rightly so: it can have serious consequences for a customer and for the business. The hard part is not knowing that flour contains gluten, but not forgetting anything when a cake has a base, a filling and a glaze, each with its own ingredients.

In this use case you will see how to set up allergen labelling so that it works itself out: you tick them once on each ingredient and Recipok adds them up in each recipe, on the label, in the showcase and on the menu.

What the rules require, in a nutshell

The labelling rules of your country (in the EU, Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers) require, among other things, that the 14 allergens that must be declared are shown in the ingredients list, emphasised with a typeface that sets them apart from the rest (bold, capitals or underlining). For unpackaged products, allergen information must also be available to the customer.

Important

This summary does not replace the text of the regulation or the national rules that implement it. Recipok calculates and builds the label from what you tell it; responsibility for what is declared lies with the business. If in doubt, ask your quality consultant or your trade association.

Step by step in Recipok

Tick the allergens of each ingredient

On the ingredient sheet, Allergens and labeling tab, tick what it contains under Allergens and what it may contain under Traces. The reliable source is the supplier’s technical sheet: with the Integral plan you can attach it with Attach technical sheet and have Recipok read it with Analyze with AI; you check and save. See Allergens, traces and nutrition information.

Declare your bakery’s traces

If your bakery works with nuts or sesame, enter it just once in Configuration › Master data › Allergen traces. They will appear on every label (or only on recipes with a particular tag).

Create the recipe and check its allergen card

Recipok adds up the allergens of all the ingredients, including those of the sub-recipes inside it. If a recipe with flour says “No allergens”, there is an ingredient that hasn’t been classified.

Set how they are emphasised

In the recipe’s Label configuration tab, choose Allergens in bold or Allergens in uppercase, the sales format (the net weight and barcode come from it) and, if you need it, Percentages per ingredient (QUID). With Do not add the company traces you exclude the general traces for a particular recipe.

Print the final label from the production order

From the recipe you can print a draft to test the design. The label that goes on the product is printed from the production order, with the real lot and expiry date. See Consumer label.

Cheesecake › Label configuration

TemplateGeneral settingsBarcodeLabel elementsPreview

1Sales format

22 cm cheesecake ▾

2Allergens

☑ Allergens in bold ☑ Allergens in uppercase ☐ Do not add the company traces

Cheesecake

Ingredients: cream cheese (milk), cream (milk), egg, sugar, biscuit (wheat flour, butter (milk), sugar). 3May contain traces of nuts.

Best before 21/10/2026Lot TQ-261016-000021

Net weight 2,050 gStore between 0 and 4 °C

The label configuration and the consumer label of Pastelería La Plaza’s cheesecake.

1Sales format: the net weight and barcode come from here.
2How allergens are emphasised in the ingredients list.
3Your bakery’s traces are added automatically at the end.

Counter, menu and customers

Showcase label: name, price and ingredients with allergens and traces for the display counter. Several are printed at once from My Recipes. See Showcase and internal labels.
Menu cards: if you run a café or catering service, Recipok’s menus show the allergens of each dish, as a PDF and with a QR code. See Menus.
PDF catalogue: from My Recipes, a catalogue with an Allergens column to send to your trade customers.

Common mistakes

Traces ticked as allergens (or the other way round). Check the supplier’s sheet: “contains” and “may contain” go in different boxes.
A new ingredient left unclassified, added in a hurry from a recipe. Check the allergen card of every new recipe before labelling it.
Old labels in the bakery after changing supplier. When you change an ingredient, reprint.

Try it

Create your free account, add the ingredients of your star product with their allergens and look at the label you get. It is the best way to check that nothing slips through.

Frequently asked questions

Which allergens have to be declared?

The 14 listed in European legislation: cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soya, milk, nuts, celery, mustard, sesame seeds, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, lupin and molluscs. Recipok has a tick box for each one on every ingredient.

What is the difference between an allergen and a trace?

An allergen is in the product as an ingredient. A trace is a possible presence through cross-contamination (the same table, the same oven). In Recipok they are ticked in separate boxes and appear separately on the label, as “May contain…”.

What if I sell unpackaged, over the counter?

You still have to give customers allergen information. Recipok gives you the showcase label, the menu with allergens and a PDF catalogue with an allergen column. Check with your quality consultant how it must be displayed where you are.

I have changed an ingredient. Do I have to redo the labels?

You don’t have to rewrite them: when you change an ingredient’s allergens, Recipok regenerates the label text of the recipes it goes into. You do need to reprint any labels you have already printed.