Allergens on the menu: what Icelandic rules require

A guest with a peanut allergy asks if the satay is safe to eat. The answer has to be right every time, also on a busy Saturday when the cook who made the sauce has the day off. The Icelandic rules for allergen information are short. They are easy to follow when the information for each dish is written down in one place.

The rules in short

Iceland applies EU Regulation 1169/2011 on food information to consumers through reglugerð nr. 1294/2014.¹ For food that is not prepacked, which is most of what a restaurant serves, the EU regulation makes one piece of information mandatory: the allergens on its list.²

Restaurants, cafés and bakeries must tell guests if a dish contains any of the listed allergens. This applies even when the amount is very small, and even when the allergen is inside a compound ingredient.³ MAST gives three examples: celery in a spice mix, peanuts in satay sauce and almonds in marzipan.³

The same rule applies to food that you wrap at the counter, such as a sandwich sold over the counter or a takeaway meal.³ MAST’s page on allergens, updated on 12 August 2026, still points to this guidance.⁴

MAST and the municipal health committees supervise the rules.¹ In March 2017 they announced a joint inspection project. Health inspectors around the country were to visit restaurants, cafés and shops and check how they gave allergen information and whether the information was correct.⁵

The 14 allergens

Annex II of the EU regulation lists 14 substances or products. Products made from them count too.² MAST uses whey from milk as an example.³

The list has a few exceptions, such as fully refined soybean oil and glucose syrups made from wheat.² Read Annex II for the exact wording.

Written or spoken

You can choose how you give the information. The Icelandic regulation allows any method, including spoken information.¹

Written. The information can be on the menu, on a screen or on a sign.³ For food that is not prepacked, you do not need a full ingredient list on the menu. MAST suggests the dish name followed by “Contains:” and the allergens.³ For example: “Cheesecake. Contains: wheat, hazelnuts, milk and eggs.”

Spoken. Staff can tell the guest. In that case you must show, in a visible place, that staff give this information. A label, a line on the menu or a sign where guests order are all possible.¹ MAST’s sample sign says “Ertu með ofnæmi? Spurðu okkur!”, which means “Do you have an allergy? Ask us!”³

Spoken information works when the person on shift can find the correct answer quickly. Many places use both: allergens on the menu, and a sign that invites guests to ask.

The Icelandic regulation also says that the seller of food that is not prepacked must be able to give the buyer other information about the food, such as the ingredients.¹ A complete recipe card for each dish covers this as well.

Allergens hidden in bought ingredients

Most mistakes come from products that you buy ready-made: stock, spice mixes, sauces, dressings and bread. The duty to inform covers the allergens inside these products too.³

Read the label of each product and write its allergens into the recipe. Do it again when a supplier changes a product or when you change supplier. A new brand of curry paste or a new bakery can bring a different recipe.

Online, QR and kiosk orders

When a guest orders on a website, in an app or by phone, the regulation calls it distance selling. For food that is not prepacked, the allergen information must be available before the purchase is completed.²³ The information must be on the website or app, or come by another suitable method that the business clearly states. The guest must not pay extra for it.²

The simplest way is to show the allergens on each dish in the online menu, before the guest pays. If you sell through a delivery app, check that each dish in the app shows the same allergens as your own menu.

QR ordering at the table and a self-service kiosk are a little different, because the guest is in the restaurant and can ask staff. But the guest makes the choice on a screen, often without talking to anyone. Showing the allergens on the screen, next to each dish, is the clearest way to make sure that the guest sees them.

”May contain” is voluntary

A note such as “may contain traces of hazelnuts” is voluntary. MAST uses that exact sentence as its example of a voluntary label.³ The EU regulation says that voluntary information must not mislead the guest, must not be ambiguous or confusing, and must be based on relevant scientific data where that applies.²

Use the note when there is a real risk of cross-contact in your kitchen. One example is when you chop nuts on the same board that you use for salads. A “may contain” note on every dish gives the guest no useful information and makes the real warnings harder to see.

Keep the information correct when a recipe changes

Most errors happen on the day that a recipe changes. A short routine helps.

1. Keep one recipe card for each dish. List every ingredient, including what is inside the products that you buy.
2. Mark the allergens on the card. Use the 14 names from the list above.
3. When a recipe or a supplier product changes, update the card first. Then update the printed menu, the online menu, the kiosk and the signs.
4. Tell the shift about the change at the start of the shift.
5. With each new menu, compare the printed menu, the screens and the online menu with the recipe cards.

In Resto, the allergens are part of each product in the menu, so the POS, the kiosk and the online menu show the same information. The system can only show what you enter, so the recipe card is still where the correct answer starts.

Nutrition values are a separate topic

For food that is not prepacked, the EU regulation makes other information mandatory only when a country adds its own national rule.² As we read reglugerð 1294/2014, the Icelandic national rule does not include the nutrition declaration, so nutrition values on a restaurant menu are voluntary.¹ Confirm this with your health inspectorate if you plan to make nutrition claims.

If you want to show nutrition values, you can calculate them from the recipe of each dish. You can read more about nutrition values in Resto.

Where to ask

Your local health inspectorate is the authority that visits your place, so it is the best place to ask about your own case. MAST publishes the national guidance on its allergen page.⁴ The primary texts are reglugerð 1294/2014 and EU Regulation 1169/2011, which are both linked below.