Canadian Allergen Labelling: Scope and Limits

Canadian allergen labelling is a set of rules for food sold in a package: the ingredients on a label, and the priority allergens named on it in plain words. Health Canada's pages describe those labels and do not address restaurant menus. This guide explains what the rules cover, one exemption that involves restaurants and what to ask when a dish has no label.

This guide quotes official pages as they read on November 9, 2026. It is not legal or medical advice.

What does Canadian allergen labelling cover?

Health Canada's page on common food allergens says the Food and Drug Regulations require that most prepackaged foods carry a label, with the ingredients in a list in decreasing order of proportion, and that common allergenic foods and ingredients are always identified by their common names. It describes work to strengthen the labelling of priority allergens, gluten sources and sulphites in pre-packaged foods sold in Canada.

The questions and answers page says the amended regulations came into force on August 4, 2012. Both pages are about the package, the label and the list of ingredients, not food cooked to order.

Which priority allergens does Health Canada name?

The common food allergens page lists eleven groups: eggs, milk, mustard, peanuts, crustaceans and molluscs, fish, sesame seeds, soy, sulphites, tree nuts, and wheat and triticale. Gluten sources are named separately in the labelling work the page describes, and the CFIA's definitions page describes gluten as gluten protein from barley, oats, rye, triticale or wheat.

Crustaceans and molluscs share one entry on the government's list, though they are different animals, and a cook may treat them differently. Mustard and sulphites are on it too, which is not true of every list you may have seen elsewhere.

Where must a prepackaged food declare an allergen?

The questions and answers page says an added allergen or gluten source may be declared either in the list of ingredients or in a statement immediately after the list. For mustard, it says the word must appear either in the list of ingredients or in a separate "Contains" statement.

So read two places on any package: the ingredient list and the line after it.

What are individual portions served by a restaurant?

The same page lists, among foods that remain exempt from declaring ingredients, "prepackaged individual portions of food that are served by a restaurant". If a list of ingredients is provided anyway, it says the allergen labelling requirements apply. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency's page on ingredients and allergens states the general rule that food allergens, gluten and added sulphites must be declared, provided there are no exemptions or exceptions, and its exemptions include prepackaged individual portions of food intended solely to be served with meals or snacks by restaurants, airlines and others the regulations list.

Think of a single-serve packet handed over with a meal, not the meal itself.

What do precautionary statements mean?

Health Canada's page describes such statements as notices that a food allergen may be unintentionally present in a food, and advises consumers to look for and respect any allergen statement of that kind present on the label. The CFIA page defines a cross-contamination, or precautionary, statement as a declaration on the label of a prepackaged product.

So a line such as "may contain" is about accidental presence, and it lives on the package. It is a reason to put an item back, not a reason to relax when the line is absent. A plate cooked to order has no such line unless the place chooses to offer one.

What do the pages leave unsaid about restaurant menus?

The questions and answers page mentions restaurants only in the exemption above, and it does not address restaurant menus. The common food allergens page does not mention restaurants at all. Neither page says what a kitchen must tell you about a dish cooked on site, and neither says it has no such duty.

That silence is information. It means these pages cannot be your answer at the table, so ask the place, and ask your local public health unit what applies where you are. A provincial or municipal rule may exist, and these pages do not say.

How should you ask when a dish has no label?

Say the allergen by its everyday name, not only the group, and ask whether the dish, its sauce and its cooking surface involve it. Ask who can check with the cook, and whether there is a written notice, a card or an ingredient sheet you can read.

If the answer is vague, choose another dish. Your own doctor or allergist decides what is right for you. Our guide to eating out with food allergies in Canada goes through the conversation, and the nut guide for group meals covers shared plates.

How can the Mosey app help you read a menu?

In the Mosey app you can choose allergens under "Hide dishes that list", and any dish a place has listed with one is hidden. A dish the place has not filled in stays on the menu, marked "Allergens not listed, ask the place". The app shows what a place chooses to say, which is not a label and not a legal notice, so it never replaces asking. The choice stays on your phone, and the control never filters whole places.

For Canadian places the app offers a list of twelve allergens, with crustaceans and molluscs shown separately. You can rate each dish, add a note on what you were told, and treat tags as one diner's view. A list such as Labels and answers can be shared by link, and you can follow friends. Mosey welcomes small places with free listing, affordable tools and no hidden fees, so supporting local stays central, and a place can declare its allergens in its dashboard.

Where else can you read about food rules in Canada?

Our gluten guide on the 20 ppm position, the Canadian food guides, the ratings page and the lists page carry on from here.

Before your next meal out, get the Mosey app, rate the dish and keep a list of what each kitchen told you.