The 9 Major Food Allergens Food Handlers Must Know

A food allergy is an abnormal reaction by the body’s immune system to a particular food or ingredient.

Even a tiny amount of the allergy-causing food or ingredient — known as an allergen — can trigger symptoms that range from mild to life-threatening.

There are more than 100 known food allergens, but there are nine major food allergens that account for most food allergies.

As a food handler, you must know what these nine are and how to identify them so that you can keep customers safe from foodborne illnesses when preparing special orders.

This article lists the nine major food allergens, how to identify them, and how to keep your customers with food allergies safe by avoiding cross-contact.

The 9 major food allergens

Over 160 foods and ingredients have been identified to cause food allergies in sensitive individuals.

Nine of these account for 90% of all food allergies.

These nine are known as the major food allergens, which include (1):

• milk
• eggs
• fish, such as cod, bass, or salmon
• shellfish, such as crab, lobster, or shrimp
• tree nuts, such as almonds, pecans, or walnuts
• peanuts
• wheat
• soybeans
• sesame

Sesame was declared the ninth major food allergy recognized in the United States on April 23, 2021, and recognized by the 2022 Food Code.

A food allergy is different from a food sensitivity in that a sensitivity doesn’t cause an immune reaction.

A person who consumes a food or ingredient to which they are sensitive may experience digestive systems, such as bloating, diarrhea, or stomach pain.

But, someone who consumes a food or ingredient to which they are allergic can experience more severe symptoms.

Symptoms of an allergic reaction can include:

• red and itchy skin
• swelling of the face, mouth, and throat
• wheezing or shortness of breath
• tingling or itching in the mouth
• difficulty swallowing
• dizziness or lightheadedness

These symptoms can develop within a few minutes to several hours after eating the offending food.

To sensitive individuals, food allergens are a type of chemical food hazard.

How to identify the major food allergens

Think about a carton of eggs, a gallon of milk, and fresh fish.

It’s easy to identify food allergens when the product contains the allergen name, but it’s not always so obvious with other foods.

You must also be able to identify products that contain the major food allergens, which you can do by reading the nutrition label.

Food products that contain one or more of the nine major food allergens must declare so on the label using the common or usual name as required by the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 (FALCPA) (1).

Congress passed this act to make it easier for people, caregivers, and food handlers to identify and avoid foods that contain major food allergens.

Food manufacturers are required to display food allergens on food labels in one of two ways (1):

However, the FALCPA act doesn’t apply to highly refined oils made from one of the major food allergens — such as peanut or soybean oil.

It also doesn’t apply to products that already identify an allergen in the product name, like buttermilk or slivered almonds.

Manufacturers may choose to use advisory statements on their labels when there is a chance that a food allergen may be present.

Oats are naturally gluten-free, for example, but they cannot be guaranteed gluten-free unless they are labeled as such, since gluten-containing grains like wheat, rye, barley, and spelt may be unintentionally introduced during farming, transportation, or storage.

This is because the refinery process to produce these oils removes the protein to which a person would be allergic.

How to prevent cross-contact

When preparing a special order, you must prevent cross-contact.

Cross-contact is similar to cross-contamination but occurs when a food allergen rather than a foodborne pathogen is unintentionally transferred from one food to another.

Once it has occurred, you cannot reverse cross-contact through cooking or other means.

Similar to cross-contamination, cross-contact occurs with improper handwashing or glove use or sharing unsanitized equipment or utensils.

For example, if you use a knife to cut wheat bread and then use that same knife to cut wheat-free bread, the wheat-free bread is no longer wheat-free.

This is an example of indirect cross-contact, but it can also occur directly, for example, if you sprinkle walnuts on a salad.

Even if you remove the walnuts, the salad still isn’t safe for someone with a tree nut allergy since even trace amounts of an allergen can cause a reaction.

Follow these best practices to prevent cross-contact when preparing an order for someone with a food allergy:

• wash your hands and change food-safe gloves often
• clean and sanitize your work area, including food-contact surfaces
• keep the order separate from other orders

You may consider having dedicated equipment like cutting boards or microwaves for preparing food for those with food allergies.

If there is any chance of cross-contact occurring while preparing or serving an allergen-free order, you must start over.

It’s better to keep your customers safe than trigger a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction.

The bottom line

A food allergy is an abnormal reaction by the body’s immune system to a particular food or ingredient.

Of the more than 160 known food allergens, there are nine that account for most cases.

The nine major food allergens are milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame.

Know these nine food allergens like the back of your hand and how to identify food products that contain them, and avoid cross-contact to keep your customers safe when preparing special orders.