Overview
Cucinovo tracks the 14 EU-regulated allergens. Allergens are tagged on individual ingredients and automatically aggregated on every recipe that uses those ingredients.
This means you only need to set allergens once per ingredient. Every recipe and sub-recipe that includes that ingredient will automatically display the correct allergen badges — no manual tagging needed on recipes.
The 14 EU Allergens
These are the 14 allergens regulated by EU food safety law (Regulation EU 1169/2011). Cucinovo supports all of them:
- Gluten — wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt
- Crustaceans — shrimp, crab, lobster
- Eggs
- Fish
- Peanuts
- Soybeans
- Milk — including lactose
- Tree Nuts — almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios, macadamia nuts
- Celery
- Mustard
- Sesame
- Sulphites — concentrations above 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/L
- Lupin
- Molluscs — mussels, oysters, squid, octopus
Setting Allergens on Ingredients
When creating or editing an ingredient, use the Allergens multi-select field to tag which allergens apply.
- Open the ingredient form (click Ingredients in the sidebar, then create or edit an ingredient).
- Scroll to the Allergens field and select all applicable allergens from the dropdown.
- Cucinovo suggests common allergens based on the ingredient name. For example, typing "flour" will suggest Gluten, and "shrimp" will suggest Crustaceans.
You can select multiple allergens for a single ingredient. For example, a pasta ingredient might have both Gluten and Eggs.
Allergens on Recipes
Recipe detail pages display allergen badges — small colored labels for each allergen present in the recipe.
These badges are collected automatically from all ingredients and sub-recipes in the recipe. If a recipe uses flour (Gluten), eggs (Eggs), and butter (Milk), the recipe page shows badges for Gluten, Eggs, and Milk.
When a sub-recipe is included, its allergens are also rolled up into the parent recipe. This ensures the parent recipe always shows the complete allergen picture.
Best Practices
Allergens are only as accurate as the data on your ingredients. When you add a new ingredient, always check and set the correct allergens. Every recipe that uses the ingredient inherits those allergens automatically.
If an allergen is wrong on a recipe, do not look for a way to edit it on the recipe — go to the ingredient and fix the allergen tags there. The recipe will update automatically.
Cucinovo helps you track allergens for internal management and menu labeling. Always verify allergen information against your actual supplier specifications, as formulations can change.