Allergens and nutrients

Why this is needed#

In the European Union, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and many other countries, it is legally required to provide guests with information about allergens in dishes. Fines for non-compliance can reach tens of thousands of euros.

Cenaly makes it easy to label allergens and nutritional values — the information is displayed directly in the digital menu.

14 main allergens (EU)#

According to Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, the following allergens must be labeled:

This is the list of regulatory requirements, not the list of what can be flagged on an item today — see the next section.

How to label allergens in Cenaly#

Step 0. Turn the card fields on#

The dish-flags block and the nutrients block are off by default — without this step you won't find them on the item card. There are two equivalent ways to enable them:

• in the header of the item card — the "Visible Fields" gear, toggles "Dish Flags" (allergens, diets, special tags) and "Nutrients" (calories, protein, fat, carbs);
• in the App Store — the cards "I mark allergens and dietary info on dishes" and "I indicate nutritional values for dishes".

The onboarding wizard pre-selects dish flags for the cafe, restaurant, bakery and canteen concepts, and nutrients for cafe, fast food and canteen. In every other case turn the fields on manually.

Step 1. Flag the item#

1. Open the menu item for editing — the "Info" tab.
2. In the dish flags block select everything present in the dish.
3. The card saves itself — the icons appear next to the item in the menu.

What can be flagged on an item#

The card's flag dictionary is fixed, and since September 2026 its "allergens" group holds all 14 EU allergens — plus the "Gluten Free" dietary claim:

There used to be seven flags: peanuts were not separated from nuts, molluscs from crustaceans, and fish, celery, mustard, sesame, sulphur dioxide and lupin had no flag at all. Items marked with the old set keep working exactly as before: "Contains Nuts" still means nuts, "Crustaceans" still means crustaceans. If a dish contains a non-standard allergen (coriander, say), state it in the dish description — the description is visible to the guest on the card and is translated into every menu language.

The icon library in the Labels section (/labels) holds 29 standard labels — all 14 EU allergens plus 15 dietary and special ones — and you can add your own there. But the library defines icons and translations, not the choice list on an item: only the flags from the table above can be selected on a dish card. See Dish labels.

Allergens and additives by ingredients#

If a dish has a recipe (the “Ingredients” tab), you can mark allergens once — on the stock item — instead of in every dish.

1. Open Inventory → item (bun, sauce, cheese) and in the “Allergens and food additives” block mark what it contains: allergen badges and E numbers of additives (for example E211 Sodium benzoate — you can type the name too). If there are no allergens, press “No allergens” so the hint does not treat the item as unfilled.
2. A semi-finished product (sauce, dough) is expanded through its own recipe, so marking its ingredients is enough.
3. In the dish card, on the “Info” tab under the flags, the “By ingredients” hint appears: allergens and additives of all ingredients; hover to see which ingredient each comes from. Sulphites E220–E228 add the “Sulphur dioxide” allergen themselves.
4. Press “Add allergens to the dish” — missing flags are added to those already marked. The hint never changes flags on its own: you decide what the dish label says.

Example: a burger made of a bun (gluten, sesame) and a burger-sauce semi-finished product, where the ketchup has E211 and the mayonnaise has eggs and mustard, shows “by ingredients: gluten, sesame, eggs, mustard; additives: E211”.

The hint also warns about gaps: “allergens are not marked for 2 ingredient(s)” lists items whose block is still empty.

Display for guests#

In the digital menu#

• Allergen icons are displayed next to each item
• On the dish card the allergen name in the guest's language is printed next to the icon — no need to guess from the picture
• A dish-label filter is available — the guest picks dietary labels (vegetarian, vegan, halal, gluten free…) and sees only matching items; the choice is remembered and survives a page reload
• An "exclude allergen" filter is available too — the guest ticks what they must avoid and those items disappear from the menu. Its list is built from the allergens actually present in your menu: the codes are derived from the flags set on the dish cards, so nothing has to be filled in separately. "Gluten Free" never enters that list — it is a dietary claim and lives in the dietary-label filter

Display example#

🍝 Pasta Carbonara                    ₽650
   Spaghetti, bacon, parmesan, egg, cream
   🌾 🥚 🥛
   [Calories: 520 kcal | Protein: 22g | Fat: 28g | Carbs: 45g]

Allergen disclaimer#

Under allergens and nutrition in the dish card you can show your location's own text — for example: “Dishes are prepared in a kitchen that handles nuts and gluten; traces are possible.” Set it in the site settings of a location with the “menu” channel (My site → storefront settings, next to “Characteristics in the QR menu”) and translate it to the menu languages with the translations button. Leave it empty to hide the block.

The disclaimer is shown in the dish card of the digital menu, in the “Item info” window of the web POS and in the “About the dish” window of the Android, Windows and Ubuntu POS apps.

What the till and kitchen see#

Allergen flags and dietary labels belong to the account's item, shared by locations selling it. With kitchen printing configured, they appear as text beneath the item on the kitchen ticket. Empty labels produce no corresponding line. Configure the printer and kitchen routing for the intended location.

1. Check the dish flags and send a sample order to the kitchen.
2. Check the allergen names and dietary labels beneath the dish on the ticket.
3. If a guest is attached to the ticket, open their card in POS: it shows saved allergies and dietary restrictions when access to those details is available. A warning badge helps draw attention to them; restricted access may show a lock instead of details.

Guest allergies and dish labels are separate data. Send a request about a particular serving as an item comment; attaching a guest does not by itself mean the kitchen has received their request. See Table orders and Kitchen printing.

Ingredients and allergens in the POS#

A guest asks “does this have nuts?” — the waiter answers without leaving the register. The item card opens read-only: nothing goes to the ticket until you press “Add to ticket” yourself.

1. Long press on an item (or right-click with a mouse). For a cashier without stop-list rights the card opens straight away; for a floor manager the long press opens the item menu — pick the first entry “ⓘ Ingredients & allergens” (the stop list and “Edit item” live there too).
2. The “ⓘ Item info” command on the menu bar or in “More”: press it, then tap an item — the card opens instead of adding it. The command is a register screen option placed in the register design mode (the restaurant, café and bar starter layouts already keep it in “More”). While it is armed, a hint with a “Cancel” button shows above the tiles.
3. About what is already on the ticket: press “⋯” on the line → “ⓘ Ingredients & allergens”.

What the card shows:

• Allergens — first, on a red panel: the item flags (“Contains nuts”, “Dairy”…). If no allergen is marked on the item, the card says “No allergens are marked on this item — check with the kitchen before answering the guest”: an empty mark does not mean there are none.
• Diet — gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, halal, kosher, keto, organic, spiciness.
• Description, nutrition (kcal, protein, fat, carbs), portion weight, cooking time, set contents.
• The photo, the price the register charges now and the “stop list” / “not on sale now” mark.
• The location's allergen disclaimer, if it is set (see above).

An item with nothing but a name and price shows a hint: the owner adds the description, allergens and nutrition in the Menu section. The window is kept in the page address — it reopens after a refresh.

Nutritional value (nutrients)#

For each item, you can specify:

Nutrients are set not only for the dish as a whole, but also per variant (portion size, dough type) and per add-on — the guest sees the figures for the option they picked. There are no "fiber", "sugar" or "salt" fields on the card.

Country requirements#

Additional labels#

In addition to allergens, you can label items as:

Tips#

1. Don't skip allergens — it's not only caring for guests, but also a legal requirement
2. Update when the recipe changes — if the ingredients changed, update the labeling
3. Train staff — employees should know the ingredients and be able to inform guests
4. Use the filter — show guests that your establishment cares about safety

Limitations#

• The “Ingredients & allergens” card shows what is marked on the item: allergens from the recipe (the “By ingredients” hint) are not carried over by themselves — move them into the dish flags with the button in the menu item card. The attached guest's card shows guest details, not dish ingredients.
• “Ingredients” means the item description; the card does not list the recipe components.
• The kitchen ticket prints saved labels: update the item flags when the recipe changes. An absent allergen line does not confirm the absence of allergens.
• The “by ingredients” hint covers the base recipe of the dish, without variants and add-ons. Food additives are not shown to guests as a separate list — add them to the dish description if needed.
• The E-number reference holds the most common additives; a code outside it is saved too, just without a name.

Troubleshooting#

FAQ#

Do dish labels depend on the cashier? No, they belong to the account's item. Access to personal guest details is a separate condition.

How do I quickly check in the POS whether a dish has nuts? Long-press the item → the “Ingredients & allergens” card (a floor manager picks “ⓘ Ingredients & allergens” in the item menu). Nothing is added to the ticket.

Related topics#

Dish labels · Kitchen printing · Table orders