The canteen environment should allow pupils to feel confident to ask about allergens in meals. This would help relieve pupils’ anxiety and it can in turn reduce the risk of making unsuitable decisions about the food they purchase.

Catering staff should be patient with pupils asking about allergens. Allergies can be life-threatening and avoiding the allergen is part of the allergy management plan, issued by a healthcare professional.

See more in the allergy and child’s quality of life page.

Food allergies are not food preferences.

Nearly 1 in 10 young people keep their allergies hidden and 44% don’t feel confident to ask about allergen information when eating away from home.

 Food Standards Scotland, 2020

Allergen Charts

All catering staff must know or be able to quickly identify which allergens are present in all meals served.

Having an allergen chart that is updated for each meal and displayed near the till will enable this.

An example can be found in the  Food Standards Scotland loose foods booklet.

This is an example of an Allergen Chart from the Food Standards Agency, you can download a PDF version of this chart  here.