Priority Allergens on a Canadian Menu and the Dish Filter

Priority allergens are the ones Health Canada singles out, and a Canadian place on Mosey is offered a list built on them: twelve choices, because the app splits crustaceans from molluscs. A place ticks each dish as Contains or May contain, the dish filter hides dishes that list your choice, and a dish nobody has filled in stays visible and says so.

What are the priority allergens a Canadian place can list?

For a Canadian place the app offers these choices first, in this order: peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, milk, eggs, fish, crustaceans, molluscs, soybeans, wheat, mustard and sulphites. Anything else, such as celery or lupin, sits under "Other allergens" and can still be ticked. The list decides what is offered first, not what can be said, and a dish a place carries over from another market keeps whatever it declared.

The filter's own note on a Canadian device reads: "These are the priority allergens named in Canada. The place lists what is in each dish." The second sentence is the important one. Everything on the screen is the place's statement about its own dish.

How does Mosey's list compare with the Health Canada list?

Health Canada's page on common food allergens, dated May 28, 2026, names eleven: eggs, milk, mustard, peanuts, crustaceans and molluscs, fish, sesame seeds, soy, sulphites, tree nuts, and wheat and triticale. Two differences matter at a table. The app lists crustaceans and molluscs as two choices, so a place can say which it means, and it says "Wheat" where Health Canada says "wheat and triticale". Peanuts and tree nuts are separate in both.

The Health Canada page says most prepackaged foods must carry a label and that priority allergens, gluten sources and sulphites must be shown by their common names. It does not mention restaurants or food served in them. Mosey's list is a tool for reading a menu, not a statement about what the law asks of a kitchen.

What do Contains, May contain and Allergens not listed say?

On a menu row the app writes Contains or May contain followed by the allergens. On a dish screen the same facts become sentences: "Contains: peanuts." and "May contain: sesame." Where a place has said a dish lists nothing, the sentence is "The place lists no allergens for this dish." A place can add a "Note from the place" of up to 500 characters, printed in its own words.

Contains means the place ticked the allergen as an ingredient. May contain means it ticked it as a possibility, for example through shared equipment. If a place ticks one allergen both ways, Contains wins. A dish nobody has filled in reads "Allergens not listed: ask the place". That line is not a hidden none, because an empty list is never counted as a statement. On the website's market menu pages the line under the dishes reads: "Allergen and dietary information comes from the place. Check with them before you eat there."

How does Hide dishes that list work in Canada?

Choose one or more allergens and the filter hides any dish whose place has listed one of them, as Contains or May contain. Dishes with no entry stay on screen, marked "Allergens not listed, ask the place". Under the title the sheet says: "Based on what the place has listed. Always tell staff about your allergy." If you choose wheat, dishes that list gluten are hidden too, and the reverse. That is a cautious reading of what a place entered, not a claim that the two are the same.

On a place's menu the filter works on your device and says how many dishes it hid, for example "1 dish hidden". On the Dishes page, the Home dishes strip and dish search it works across many places, shows a line reading "Hiding dishes that list" followed by your choices, and gives no count. Those screens offer the list for where you are browsing first, so in Canada that is the priority list, with every other allergen under Other allergens.

What does the filter leave alone, and what stays private?

It leaves places alone: place search, the map and the Find sheet have no allergen control, on purpose. It also leaves combos, the recommended dishes list and the single dish screen unfiltered. Your choice stays on your phone, travels as one setting with each request, is never stored on your account or in search history, and is cleared when you sign out. For dishes added by diners, the entry is always "not listed".

What should you ask, and where do ratings and lists fit?

The wording starts the conversation. Say your allergy plainly, ask how the dish is cooked, and ask about shared fryers, pans and boards. Our guide to eating out with food allergies in Canada has a longer list, and what Canadian allergen labelling covers explains why a restaurant plate is not a labelled package. For individual allergens on the Canadian list, read about mustard, sulphites, crustaceans and molluscs and sesame.

Then keep your own record. Rate the dish, not only the place, and note how the kitchen handled the request. Tags are one diner's note about one visit, never a promise. A private list of places that answered clearly can be shared with friends. See rating a dish for how that works.

A place can fill in its allergens in its dashboard, and Mosey is free to list, with no hidden fees and affordable tools, which helps local kitchens share what is in their dishes. More guides sit in the Canadian food guides.

Next time you set the filter, rate the dish you chose in the Mosey app and add a line on what the kitchen told you.