Allergens

As a chef, I have to duty at work to ensure customers are provided with wholesome, safe food to eat. At home, I follow the same procedures I do at work to cook for my family. One of the things as a chef you need to consider are allergens. By law restaurants, food manufacturers and suppliers in the UK must provide information about allergens to their customers. Allergens are ingredients which may affect the customer adversely. Even the very smallest traces of some of these products may be harmful. It can be very difficult to eliminate some of the ingredients listed below from your diet and if you are allergic you need to read product labels very carefully – for example, most vegetable stock cubes and bases will use celery or celery salt as an ingredient.

I cannot guarantee any of my recipes are free from any allergens as I don’t know the provenance of anyone’s supplies, but I am going to flag up what ingredients I know to be allergens in the recipes on this blog, by placing pictures at the bottom of the recipes and a link to this page.

If you want to read up on this follow the link to the Food Standards Agency.

What are the allergens in question?

  Celery and Celeriac    Milk*

Molluscs                    Gluten*

Peanuts                        Crustaceans

Sesame Seeds         Mustard

Eggs                    Nuts

 Lupin                        Fish

There are two other allergens that are required to be listed Soya products and foodstuffs treated with sulphites which may include Balsamic vinegar, wine, beer and dried fruits.

*Milk includes milk-based products like butter, cheese, and yogurt.

**Gluten is found in Wheat, Barley, Rye and Spelt.