The short answer
As things stand, UK food businesses have a duty to be able to tell a customer, on request, which of the fourteen recognised allergens are present in a dish, and to provide that information in writing if asked, whether as a printed allergen matrix or a clearly signposted way to ask a member of staff. There's no current legal requirement to publish allergen information online specifically. A campaign known as Owen's Law has pushed for mandatory written allergen information to go further, and it has had government and food-safety attention, but check food.gov.uk for the current position before relying on anything here, including this page, since it's an area that can move. Publishing a clear allergen page voluntarily, regardless of where the law ends up, tends to help a guest choose you over a venue that hasn't bothered.
What UK food businesses must do today
The current duty, under UK food information law, is that a business serving non-prepacked food (a meal cooked and served on the premises, broadly) must be able to tell a customer which of the fourteen recognised allergens, among them nuts, gluten, milk, eggs, soya, shellfish and others, are present in a dish, if asked. It must be available in writing if the customer specifically requests that, which can be a printed matrix at the till or on tables, or a clearly signposted process for asking a member of staff who then checks and confirms. This doesn't currently require publishing the information online or on a printed menu unprompted, only being able to provide it on request. The existing duty is a genuinely safe thing to rely on; what's under discussion is whether it should go further.
What "Owen's Law" proposes, and its status
Owen's Law is the name campaigners have given to a push for mandatory written allergen information to be provided more proactively, named after a case that drew public and parliamentary attention to gaps in the current system. The campaign and associated discussion have had attention from food safety bodies and in Parliament, but as of writing, it is a proposal and a live area of policy discussion, not a change that has been made into law. Because this is exactly the kind of thing that moves, and the stakes for guests with serious allergies are real, don't take any specific date or outcome from this page as current. Check food.gov.uk directly, since any change to the legal position would be published there.
Why an online allergen guide helps conversion regardless
Whatever the legal position ends up being, a visible, honestly written allergen page does real work for a venue right now. A guest with a genuine allergy, or cooking for someone who has one, often filters venues by this before anything else, sometimes before even checking the menu itself. A café or restaurant that makes this easy to find, rather than something you can only discover by asking in person once you've already sat down, removes a real barrier to booking or walking in. It's also one of the clearer signals, alongside photos and reviews, that a business is properly run, which matters for trust even to guests without any allergy at all.
What a simple allergen page includes
A workable allergen page doesn't need to be complicated. It typically covers: a clear statement that allergen information is available on request, in writing if asked; either a simple allergen matrix (dishes down one side, the fourteen allergens across the top, marked where each applies) or a clear note on how to ask a member of staff; a note that recipes and suppliers can change, so the information reflects what's current rather than being treated as permanently fixed; and a way to ask a question directly if someone has a specific concern not covered by the page. Keep the tone plain and direct rather than legalistic, since a guest reading this is often anxious, not browsing casually.
Keeping it in step with menu changes
An allergen page is only as good as how current it is. Every time a dish changes, a supplier changes, or a seasonal item is added, the allergen information needs checking against it, not updated in a separate process that gets forgotten. The venues that get this wrong usually aren't being careless; the menu page gets updated and the allergen page simply doesn't, because they live in different places and nobody's responsible for keeping both in sync. Building them so one update covers both avoids this gap entirely.
Getting it built with your menu page
The practical fix is building the allergen page alongside your menu, not as an afterthought bolted on separately, so updating one naturally prompts a check of the other. This is part of our web-forms work when it needs a proper structured page rather than a static PDF, and pairs naturally with the dietary Attributes on your Google Business Profile (our seo-gbp work), which is where a guest filtering by vegetarian or allergen-friendly options before they've even opened your listing will see it first. See our guide to Google Business Profile for cafés, restaurants and pubs for how Attributes and the Menu tab work together.
When to get help, and what we'd do
If your menu lives online but allergen information only exists as something staff know or a laminated sheet behind the counter, building a proper allergen page that updates alongside your menu is straightforward web-forms work. If you haven't yet filled in the dietary and accessibility Attributes on your Google Business Profile, that's a quick addition to our seo-gbp setup, and the two naturally sit together: a complete profile and a venue page that actually answers the question a guest came to ask.
See the main guide to cafés, restaurants and venues not showing up on Google for the wider picture, and our website service for how a page like this gets built.
Frequently asked questions
Do I legally have to publish allergen information on my website or menu?
As things stand, no, not unprompted. The current duty is to be able to provide allergen information on request, including in writing if specifically asked. There's ongoing discussion, including the Owen's Law campaign, about whether this should become a stronger, proactive requirement, so it's worth checking food.gov.uk for the current position rather than assuming it will stay as it is.
What is Owen's Law?
It's the name given to a campaign pushing for mandatory written allergen information to be provided more proactively by food businesses, rather than only on request. It has had attention from food safety bodies and Parliament, but it is a proposal under discussion, not current law, as of writing.
What counts as one of the fourteen recognised allergens?
They include cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk, nuts, celery, mustard, sesame seeds, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, lupin, and molluscs. The exact list and definitions are set out in UK food information law; check food.gov.uk for the authoritative version if you're building a matrix.
Should allergen information be on my Google Business Profile too?
Yes, where it fits. The dietary Attributes on your profile let guests filter by things like vegetarian or gluten-free options before they've even opened your listing, which works alongside, not instead of, a fuller allergen page on your website.
Does an allergen page need updating every time I change the menu?
Yes, ideally as part of the same update rather than a separate task. The venues that fall behind usually update the menu and forget the allergen page because the two live in different places, which is exactly the gap worth designing out from the start.