About

Misidentifying an allergen in a food label kills approximately 150 people annually in the US alone and hospitalizes thousands more. EU Regulation 1169/2011 mandates declaration of 14 major allergen groups, yet ingredient lists use inconsistent terminology. Casein is milk. Semolina is wheat. Lecithin is often soy. This tool parses raw ingredient text against a database of 400+ allergen keywords mapped to all 14 regulatory categories. It performs multi-pass token matching: exact, substring, and compound-word decomposition. It flags cross-contamination phrases ("may contain", "traces of") separately from confirmed ingredients. The tool approximates label-reading accuracy assuming English-language ingredient lists. It does not replace medical advice or account for undeclared allergens from manufacturing cross-contact.

Formulas

The detection algorithm operates on tokenized ingredient text. Each ingredient string I is decomposed into a set of normalized tokens:

T = tokenize(normalize(I))

where normalize applies lowercasing, unicode folding, and whitespace compression. Each token t ∈ T is matched against a keyword dictionary D containing 400+ entries mapped to 14 allergen categories C:

match(t) = { c ∈ C | ∃ k ∈ D(c) : t contains k }

Cross-contamination risk is detected separately by scanning for precautionary phrases P ("may contain", "traces of", "processed in a facility") before applying allergen keyword matching to the phrase context. The final output is a union of confirmed allergens A_confirmed and possible allergens A_possible:

Result = A_confirmed ∪ A_possible

where A_confirmed ∩ A_possible resolves in favor of confirmed status. Variables: I = raw ingredient input string, T = token set, D = allergen keyword dictionary, C = set of 14 allergen categories, k = keyword entry, P = precautionary phrase set.

Reference Data

Allergen Category	Common Label Names	EU Code	Prevalence (% of food allergies)	Anaphylaxis Risk
Cereals containing Gluten	Wheat, Rye, Barley, Oats, Spelt, Kamut, Semolina, Durum, Couscous, Bulgur, Farro, Triticale	1	~1% (celiac)	Low
Crustaceans	Shrimp, Prawn, Crab, Lobster, Crayfish, Langoustine, Scampi	2	~2%	High
Eggs	Egg, Albumin, Globulin, Lysozyme, Mayonnaise, Meringue, Ovalbumin, Ovomucin	3	~9%	Moderate
Fish	Cod, Salmon, Tuna, Anchovy, Bass, Sardine, Fish sauce, Fish oil, Surimi, Worcestershire	4	~4%	High
Peanuts	Peanut, Groundnut, Arachis oil, Monkey nut, Beer nut	5	~6%	Very High
Soybeans	Soy, Soya, Soy lecithin, Tofu, Tempeh, Miso, Edamame, Soy sauce, Soybean oil	6	~5%	Moderate
Milk	Milk, Butter, Cheese, Cream, Casein, Caseinate, Whey, Lactose, Lactalbumin, Ghee, Yogurt, Curds	7	~12%	Moderate
Tree Nuts	Almond, Hazelnut, Walnut, Cashew, Pecan, Pistachio, Macadamia, Brazil nut, Chestnut, Pine nut, Praline, Marzipan, Nougat	8	~8%	Very High
Celery	Celery, Celeriac, Celery salt, Celery seed	9	~1%	Moderate
Mustard	Mustard, Mustard seed, Mustard powder, Mustard oil, Mustard flour	10	~1%	Moderate
Sesame	Sesame, Sesame seed, Sesame oil, Tahini, Halvah	11	~2%	High
Sulphur dioxide / Sulphites	Sulphites, Sulfites, Sulphur dioxide, SO₂, E220-E228, Metabisulphite, Bisulphite (> 10 mg/kg)	12	~1% (asthmatics)	Low
Lupin	Lupin, Lupine, Lupin flour, Lupin seed, Lupin protein	13	<1%	High
Molluscs	Mussel, Clam, Oyster, Squid, Octopus, Snail, Scallop, Calamari, Abalone	14	~1%	High
Prevalence figures are approximate population-level estimates from FARE and EAACI data.

Frequently Asked Questions

No. The tool strictly scans for the 14 allergen categories mandated by EU Regulation 1169/2011. Other potential allergens such as corn, coconut (classified as a fruit, not a tree nut by FDA), or specific food colorings are not flagged. If you have sensitivities outside these 14 groups, manual label review remains necessary.

The keyword dictionary includes over 400 derivative terms. Casein, caseinate, lactalbumin, and whey are mapped to the Milk category. Lecithin triggers a Soy flag unless prefixed with "sunflower" - sunflower lecithin is excluded from soy matches. Semolina and durum map to Gluten. The multi-pass matching catches these even when embedded in compound phrases like "sodium caseinate".

Confirmed allergens appear as direct ingredients in the list (e.g., 'milk powder'). Possible allergens are flagged from precautionary advisory phrases such as "may contain traces of nuts" or "produced in a facility that processes wheat". These cross-contamination warnings carry real risk - studies show approximately 5-10% of advisory-labeled products contain clinically relevant allergen levels.

No. This tool is an assistive scanning utility. It cannot detect undeclared allergens, manufacturing cross-contact, or mislabeled products. It processes only the text you provide. Regulatory compliance requires certified laboratory testing (ELISA, PCR). Individuals with severe allergies should always consult their allergist and contact manufacturers directly.

EU Regulation 1169/2011 classifies oats under "cereals containing gluten" because commercial oat supply chains have high cross-contamination rates with wheat, barley, and rye. Certified gluten-free oats exist but require specific labeling. The tool follows the regulatory classification. If your oats are certified gluten-free, you may disregard this specific flag - but the tool errs on the side of caution.

The keyword database is English-only. Non-English terms will not match. Some international terms that have entered English usage (e.g., "miso", "tofu", "tahini", 'ghee') are included. For non-English labels, translate the ingredient list to English before scanning. Machine translation may introduce errors, so verify critical terms manually.