Allergen training for your team What official guidance says each role should know, and how to keep a record of it

Everyone who takes an order or cooks a plate needs some allergen training. Here is what that means for each role, where the free official courses fit, and how to show an inspector you covered it.

What is firm law, and what is guidance

Most advice online blurs the two. The legal part, from the government guide for food businesses: you must be able to provide accurate information about allergens, and you must prevent allergen cross-contamination. The same guide says "You must be able to show that your staff have the right skills and up-to-date training for their role." Our guide to what the law asks covers training more generally.

The guidance part. The Food Standards Agency's allergen guidance, for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, states: "Food businesses must make sure that staff receive training on allergens." Food Standards Scotland says the same for Scotland.

Then there is what guidance says you should do rather than must. On the GOV.UK allergies page, the staff detail is all "should": keep written allergen information and update it when recipes change, tell staff about those changes, tell the kitchen when an order must avoid an allergen, serve the right customer, have a way of answering queries, and know what to do in a reaction.

The 14 allergens that must be declared

The law says you must declare these 14, though customers can react to other ingredients too: celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, nuts, peanuts, sesame seeds, soya, and sulphur dioxide and sulphites above 10 mg per kilogram or litre.

Watch for hidden ones in stock cubes, Worcestershire sauce, marinades, glazes and garnishes.

What each role needs to be able to do

Nobody publishes a syllabus. The closest thing is Food Standards Scotland's allergen training, which lists points for management, kitchen, front of house and takeaway orders.

Front of house

• Ask every order about allergies, unprompted.
• Never guess an ingredient. Say you will check, then check it.
• Pass an allergen request to the kitchen the same way every time, so it is not lost in service.
• Check the right dish reaches the right customer at the pass.
• Know where your written allergen information is, and what to do in a reaction.

Kitchen

• Know what is in every dish, including hidden ingredients such as fish sauce in a dressing or milk in a glaze.
• Follow standard recipes, so Friday's plate matches the recipe you wrote down.
• Keep allergens out of a dish that must not contain them: separate surface, clean utensils, washed hands, no shared spoons.
• Remember that heat does not fix it: allergens cannot be removed by cooking.
• Know the traps in your kit: oil used to fry something containing an allergen cannot be used for allergen free food. Food Standards Scotland says the fryer must be emptied, thoroughly cleaned and refilled with fresh oil first. A seasoned wok cannot be used for allergen safe food.
• Never pull the nuts off a dish and call it nut free. Residues can still cause a reaction.

You, as the manager or owner

• Keep written allergen information and check it against current recipes and supplier packs.
• Make sure a recipe or supplier change reaches everyone on shift, not just the head chef.
• Decide how an allergen order gets flagged, from the table or phone to the pass.
• Check deliveries match the order, and that decanted products keep their label.
• Know that prepacked, prepacked for direct sale and loose food have different information rules.

Phone and delivery orders

• Ask about allergies on every phone order, and write it down.
• Pack and label a dish that must avoid an allergen separately, ideally in its own bag.

Training people without a course for everyone

Two free official courses are worth knowing, compared in our guide to free food hygiene training.

The Food Standards Agency runs free Food Allergy and Intolerance Training: six modules, about three hours, with a test at the end of each. The site says: "You will need to pass all six Module tests to gain your certificate." Module 5 covers managing allergens in a catering environment. Two cautions: the FSA says the certificate is not accreditation and should not be relied on as evidence of competence, and accounts not accessed for two years may be deleted, so save the certificate.

Food Standards Scotland runs a free online allergen training course and a separate advanced tool written for hospitality and catering. Both are free and work independently, so nobody has to finish one before starting the other.

A course teaches the rules. What makes it safe is the second half: a briefing on how you do it here, then watching people work. Our team briefing guide has the steps.

Keeping a record

Food Standards Scotland says all allergen training should be accurately documented and recorded, and the government guide tells you to keep a record so you can show it at an inspection. Neither names a format.

A line per person is enough: name, role, what was covered, date, who delivered it, and what you watched them do afterwards. Our training records guide has a matrix you can copy, with an allergen column in it.

When to go over it again

Food Standards Scotland says staff should get basic allergen training before they first start work and receive regular refresher training. It names no interval, and we found no official source in the UK that does. So the honest answer is: refresh when something changes. Our refresher guide covers refreshers generally.

Triggers worth writing down:

• a recipe, supplier or label change
• a new menu
• a new starter or agency staff
• a near miss
• any time you catch staff guessing

Questions people often ask

Do waiting staff need a food hygiene certificate to work around allergens?

No. The law asks for training that fits the job, not a certificate. Our guide to whether a certificate is legally required has the detail.

Is the free FSA certificate enough on its own?

It shows someone completed the training, and it costs nothing, but the FSA says it is not accreditation and should not be relied on as evidence of competence. Pair it with a briefing on how your kitchen works, then check people at work.

How we checked this

We are not lawyers or environmental health officers, and this is not legal advice. We read the government guide on allergies, the Food Standards Agency's allergen guidance and Food Standards Scotland's allergen pages and training modules, checked on 13 October 2026. Ask your council's environmental health team about your own premises.

Sources we used

1. GOV.UK, Running a food business: Allergies. The musts (accurate allergen information, preventing cross-contamination) and the shoulds for staff, recipes and service.
2. Food Standards Agency, Allergen guidance for food businesses. Published 2 April 2020, last updated 17 July 2026. The update note for that date records a link change only, so the duty to train staff on allergens is not new: it has been in the guidance since it was published in 2020. Applies in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
3. Food Standards Scotland, Safely managing allergens in your food business. The Scotland training duty, the 14 allergens, and the free courses.
4. Food Standards Scotland, Online Allergen Training, Module 5: in the catering environment. Role points, never guess, fryer oil and wok advice, removing allergens from a dish, recording training.
5. Food Standards Agency, Food Allergy and Intolerance Training. Six modules, about three hours, certificate wording, not accreditation, two year account rule.
6. GOV.UK, Allergen checklist for food businesses. Advice for managers, kitchen staff and front of house servers. Applies in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
7. GOV.UK, Running a food business: staff training, illness and hygiene. Showing staff have the right skills, keeping a training record, training on the job, no certificate required.