The nine allergens on a home-baked label

The nine allergens

Under US law, nine foods cause most serious allergic reactions and carry their own labeling rules: Milk, Eggs, Wheat, Soy, Peanuts, Tree nuts, Sesame, Fish, Shellfish. Sesame joined the list in 2023, under the FASTER Act, so an older label may not mention it even when the recipe does.

If a recipe uses any of these, a customer with that allergy needs to be able to see it before she orders, not after she asks.

Contains, may contain, and made in a kitchen that also handles

These are three different claims, and mixing them up is where most labels go wrong.

Contains means the allergen is an ingredient in the recipe itself. If a cookie is made with butter and eggs, it contains milk and eggs, plainly.

May contain is about cross-contact, not the recipe: an ingredient that touched the same bowl, the same counter, or the same batch of frosting as an allergen, without being one itself.

Made in a kitchen that also handles is the widest and weakest claim. A home kitchen usually bakes many things, and this says the kitchen itself keeps an allergen somewhere, even on a day it never touches this particular item.

A customer reading a label expects the strongest true claim first. If a product contains an allergen, say contains, not may contain, and never bury a real ingredient inside a general kitchen note.

What goes on the label

Name each allergen present in plain English, not a scientific or brand name. Tree nuts should be named by kind, for example almonds or walnuts, since a customer allergic to one tree nut is not automatically allergic to all of them.

A simple, honest line does the job: Contains: wheat, milk, eggs. If there is cross-contact risk, add it separately: May contain tree nuts.

Skip a category that does not apply rather than guessing. An empty or missing allergen line reads to a careful customer as unanswered, not as safe.

When you are not sure

If an ingredient's allergen status is unclear, for example a spice blend or a store-bought mix with no full ingredient list, the safer choice is to leave the allergen on the label and say so plainly, rather than leave it off and hope.

A customer with a serious allergy is trusting the label more than the conversation.

When in doubt, disclose.

One more thing a customer should know: these lines are the baker's own declaration. No marketplace verifies them for her, ours included, which is why a careful customer reads the label and then asks.

Your state's cottage food statement

Most states also require a cottage food disclosure statement on any home-baked item sold under a cottage food law, separate from the allergen list. That statement is state-specific and belongs beside the allergen information, not instead of it.

Ten state guides list the exact wording; find yours on the guides page.

Sources

• FDA: Food Allergiesfda.gov
• FDA: Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA)fda.gov