Allergen Labelling for Indian Food Products in the EU and USA

What counts as an allergen under EU and US rules?

An allergen is a specific ingredient that regulators require food businesses to highlight on a label because it causes a defined share of serious reactions in the population, and the EU and US lists are not identical. The EU Food Information to Consumers Regulation (EU 1169/2011) names 14 allergens that must be declared whenever present, including cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk, tree nuts, celery, mustard, sesame seeds, sulphur dioxide and sulphites above 10 mg/kg, lupin and molluscs. The US FASTER Act, effective January 2023, expanded the prior "Big 8" to 9 major allergens by adding sesame, so US labels now cover milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame. The gap between 14 and 9 is the first thing a buyer should check before a product crosses from one market to the other.

How many allergens must be declared in the EU versus the USA?

The EU requires 14 declared categories and the US requires 9, and the difference directly affects spice blends, pastes and snack products. Gluten-containing cereals must be named by type in the EU (wheat, barley, rye, oats) rather than as a generic "gluten" statement, while the US FDA accepts a "contains wheat" statement under the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) baseline rather than requiring rye or barley unless wheat-derived. Celery and mustard, both common in pickle and chutney bases, are EU-only declared allergens with no US equivalent, so a jar of coriander chutney legal in Houston may still need a label amendment for Rotterdam.

Allergen category	EU (14, Reg. 1169/2011)	USA (9, FASTER Act)
Tree nuts	Declared, by nut type	Declared, by nut type
Peanuts	Declared	Declared
Milk	Declared	Declared
Sesame	Declared	Declared since 2023
Mustard	Declared	Not a listed major allergen
Celery	Declared	Not a listed major allergen
Lupin	Declared	Not a listed major allergen
Sulphites (>10 mg/kg)	Declared	Declared via FDA sulfite rule, lower threshold enforcement
Molluscs	Declared separately from crustaceans	Grouped under "shellfish" with crustaceans

Where do Indian-cuisine ingredients create hidden allergen risk?

The highest-risk categories are legume flours, cashew- and almond-based products, and sauces finished with dairy or nut pastes, because these ingredients are not always obvious from the product name. Chickpea Flour / Besan is a legume product and is not one of the 14 EU or 9 US major allergens on its own, but it is frequently milled on shared lines with peanut or tree nut products, which is a precautionary labelling issue rather than a mandatory declaration issue. Almond Flour / Almond Meal and Flavoured Walnuts (Salted / Masala) are straightforward tree nut declarations in both markets, but buyers often miss that EU labels must name the specific nut (almond, walnut, cashew) and cannot simply state "tree nuts." Dairy-based preparations such as Butter Chicken Cooking Sauce require a milk declaration in both markets, and if the sauce base includes cashew paste for texture, that is a second, separate tree nut declaration.

How should allergens be declared on the label itself?

Allergens must be emphasised within the ingredients list, not buried in a footnote, and the two markets use different emphasis conventions. The EU requires the allergen to be distinguished by typeface, style or background colour within the ingredients list itself, commonly bold text, for example "wheat flour, milk powder, cashew paste." The US FDA permits either bolding within the ingredients list or a separate "Contains:" statement immediately after the ingredients list, for example "Contains: Milk, Tree Nuts (Cashew)." A private-label buyer supplying both markets typically needs two label versions rather than one dual-compliant layout, because EU rules do not accept the US "Contains" statement as a substitute for in-list bolding.

What precautionary allergen labelling (PAL) rules apply?

Precautionary allergen labelling, commonly seen as "may contain traces of," is voluntary in both the EU and the USA but is treated very differently by retailers and auditors. Neither FALCPA nor EU 1169/2011 mandates a PAL statement, but EU enforcement increasingly expects a documented risk assessment behind any PAL claim rather than a blanket disclaimer applied to every SKU. US retail buyers, particularly large grocery chains, often require a formal allergen cross-contact assessment before accepting a PAL statement on a new private-label SKU. For spice blends and snack lines produced alongside tree nut or sesame products, for example coated namkeen or Coconut Milk Powder processed near nut-based powders, a documented changeover and cleaning procedure is what distinguishes a defensible PAL statement from a label that invites a retailer rejection.

What documentation should a US importer request before finalising a label?

An importer should request a written allergen statement covering both direct ingredients and cross-contact risk, issued per batch or per production run rather than as a generic product sheet. This statement should specify which of the 14 EU and 9 US allergens are present as ingredients, which are present through shared equipment, and whether the facility runs allergen segregation or dedicated lines for nut and sesame products. ODOD provides allergen declarations, specification sheets and applicable certification documents, including US FDA registration, HACCP and GMP records, with each quotation, so that the label text can be finalised before the first container is booked rather than after goods arrive at port.

How does allergen labelling change for private-label Indian food packing?

Private-label packing shifts the legal responsibility for label accuracy to the brand owner, which means the underlying allergen data must be verified independently of the supplier's own label copy. A brand importing a paste or sauce under its own name is the party legally responsible to EU and US authorities for the accuracy of the allergen declaration, not the supplier of the bulk product. Before a private-label run, the brand should cross-check the supplier's allergen statement against the actual recipe, confirm nut, sesame, mustard and celery content line by line against the applicable 14-item or 9-item list, and keep the signed allergen statement on file alongside the commercial invoice and certificate of analysis for customs and retailer audits.

To confirm allergen declarations, specification sheets and certification documents for a specific product list, request a quotation at /enquiry.