What are the 14 food allergens, and how do you look after an allergic guest?

The day before your birthday, your cousin messages to say her new boyfriend is coming too. He is allergic to nuts, and your list includes a cheese board with walnuts and a salad with toasted hazelnuts. No need to panic, just take a proper look.

An estimated 1 to 4 percent of the population has a food allergy or intolerance, and around 4 to 6 percent of children, according to the Voedingscentrum, the Netherlands Nutrition Centre. If you often have people round, it will come up sooner or later.

The 14 allergens at a glance

Annex II of EU Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 lists fourteen substances and products that cause allergies or intolerances. Businesses must always give information about these fourteen, for packaged and unpackaged food alike, explains the NVWA, the Dutch food safety authority.

• Cereals containing gluten: wheat (including spelt and khorasan wheat), rye, barley and oats
• Crustaceans, such as prawns, crab and lobster
• Eggs, including quail eggs
• Fish
• Peanuts
• Soybeans
• Milk, including lactose
• Nuts: almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, Brazil nuts, pistachios and macadamias
• Celery, including celeriac, leaf celery and celery seed
• Mustard
• Sesame seeds
• Sulphur dioxide and sulphites at more than 10 mg per kg or per litre
• Lupin
• Molluscs, such as mussels, oysters and snails

Allergy and intolerance are not the same

With a food allergy, the immune system reacts. It makes antibodies against proteins in food, and during a reaction histamine is released. Symptoms often show up in the skin, the airways or the gut: bumps, swelling, intense itching, shortness of breath, vomiting, diarrhoea or cramps.

With an intolerance, the body reacts without the immune system getting involved. The best known example is someone who struggles to digest lactose from milk. Sensitivity to sulphites is officially an intolerance too, though people often call it an allergy.

For a host, the difference is practical. People with an intolerance can sometimes handle small amounts, as with lactose or gluten, notes the Stichting Voedselallergie, the Dutch patient organisation. With an allergy, you cannot simply lift the allergen off the plate. So ask. Anyone unsure about their own reactions should see their GP.

Cross contact in the kitchen and at the buffet

Cross contact means an allergen ends up in food by accident, at home through a pan, the oil in the fryer, a chopping board or a spoon that moves between dishes. The questions the organisation suggests asking in a restaurant work as a checklist at home:

• Which oil is in the fryer, and what else has been fried in it?
• Are there separate pans and utensils for the safe dish?
• Is there a clean stretch of worktop to prepare it on?
• Does that plate stay separate until it reaches the table?

Mind the small things. All the attention often goes to the main course, the organisation notes, and not to the garlic bread beforehand, the biscuit with the coffee or the sauce with the chips.

At a buffet, spoons and hands move from bowl to bowl all evening. So fill a plate for your guest before the buffet opens and set it aside.

If it does go wrong

A severe allergic reaction can lead to anaphylactic shock, which the Voedingscentrum calls life threatening. Symptoms often start within minutes, with tingling, itching or a metallic taste in the mouth. Hives, vomiting, swelling of the mouth and throat and difficulty breathing can follow. An injection of adrenaline is needed to stop the reaction.

The Stichting Voedselallergie sets out the steps:

1. Act straight away. Lay the person down and clear the airway if needed.
2. Use the adrenaline pen or nasal spray your guest carries.
3. Call 112. Say it is a severe allergic reaction and that more adrenaline may be needed.
4. Let the ambulance take your guest to hospital. Do not drive them yourself.

Ask ahead and label the table

Ask with the invitation. One line is enough, and nobody has to explain themselves at the party. If a guest has a severe allergy, also ask where they keep their adrenaline pen.

Put a small card by each dish with its name and allergens. Restaurants, bakers and caterers must tell you about allergens in unpackaged food too, out loud or on a shelf card, for example.

If you buy something ready made, keep the packaging so your guest can check the label, where the allergens stand out in bold or capitals, for example. Since 1 January 2026, new Dutch rules have applied to warnings about cross contact, says the Voedingscentrum.

If you have the food made, pass on allergies and dietary wishes as early as you ask your guests. Planning drinks, a buffet or a dinner with Maximus Catering? Simply mention them when you get in touch.