ALLERGEN INFORMATION
A digital menu with allergens on every dish.
Serva gives every dish on your QR menu 14 allergen fields, and guests can hide every dish that contains an allergen they avoid. Servito, Serva’s AI menu advisor, answers allergy questions from the information you entered and tells guests with a serious allergy to confirm with your staff.
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The 14 allergen fields
Each dish has fields for cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk, tree nuts, celery, mustard, sesame, sulphites, lupin and molluscs. These are the 14 allergens in Annex II of EU Regulation 1169/2011; the Food Standards Agency lists the same 14 in the UK. Other countries use other lists, as the table below shows.
“Allergen list complete”
Each dish also has a box you tick when its allergen list is complete. Until you tick it, the menu and Servito present the allergens as listed, not confirmed, and point the guest to your staff. Serva never fills these fields for you.
What the guest can do
On the menu a guest opens the search, chooses the allergens they avoid and sees only the dishes without them. Diet labels (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, halal, spicy) filter the same way. The allergen names appear in the language the guest picked.
Servito and allergies
A guest writes “I’m allergic to sesame” in their own language. Servito keeps that for the conversation, leaves out dishes with sesame, warns about the ones that contain it and never promises that a dish is safe, because a recipe does not rule out cross-contact. Servito is on the Restaurant and Full plans.
Allergen rules differ by country
A short orientation; each line is a summary of the official source linked below.
| Where | Main allergen list | Food served unpackaged |
|---|---|---|
| EU | 14 allergens (Regulation 1169/2011, Annex II) | Allergen information is mandatory; each member state decides how it is given |
| UK (England, Wales, NI) | 14 allergens | In writing, or verbally with a visible written notice (FSA) |
| USA | 9 major food allergens (FDA) | FDA labelling rules cover packaged food, not most restaurant food |
| New Zealand | Required names in Standard 1.2.3, each tree nut by name | Displayed with the food or given on request (FSANZ) |
| Dubai | 9 groups in the Dubai Food Code | Allergens identified in the menu (Dubai Municipality) |
What Serva does not do
- It does not check your recipes; every allergen comes from what you enter
- It does not mark a dish “allergen-free” on its own
- It does not give medical advice
- It does not replace the conversation between your staff and a guest with an allergy
Questions about allergens on a digital menu
Which allergens can I mark on a dish?
Fourteen: cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk, tree nuts, celery, mustard, sesame, sulphites, lupin and molluscs.
Does a digital menu make my restaurant compliant?
Serva provides the fields to record and show allergen information; it does not decide what your local rules require. Check the official guidance where you trade; the sources are listed on this page.
Can guests filter dishes by allergen?
Yes. In the menu’s search a guest chooses the allergens they avoid and the menu shows only the dishes without them.
What happens if I have not finished a dish’s allergen list?
Leave “allergen list complete” unticked. The menu and Servito then present the allergens as unconfirmed and point the guest to your staff.
Does Servito tell a guest a dish is safe?
No. Servito leaves out dishes with the allergen and warns about them, and it reminds a guest with a serious allergy to confirm with the staff.
In which languages are allergens shown?
In the language the guest picks, one of 24. The allergen names are translated with the rest of the menu.
Official sources
The statements about rules on this page are short summaries of the official texts below; they are not legal advice. Check the current text at the source.
Filter a menu by allergen yourself.
Open the sample menu, hide every dish with gluten, then ask Servito about a nut allergy.