Subject to mandatory declaration in Switzerland are 14 categories of ingredients that can cause allergies or other undesirable reactions. They are set out in Annex 6 of the LIV (SR 817.022.16) and are substantively identical to Annex II of EU Regulation No 1169/2011. This article lists them in full, explains what “products derived from them” and the exceptions mean, where the Swiss and EU lists differ in wording, and what is precisely not on the list. Anyone who wants to know whether and how their business has to declare will find that in the article Allergen declaration in restaurants. The cited ordinances are as of 1 July 2025.
Which 14 allergens must be declared in Switzerland?
They are the 14 ingredient categories in Annex 6 LIV, anchored in Art. 10 LIV, each including the products derived from them. The following table shows each category in abridged form, next to the products that carry the allergen on in the kitchen. The binding wording is the German-language Annex 6 LIV; the English here follows the equivalent EU wording (Annex II of Regulation 1169/2011).
| No. | Allergen category per Annex 6 LIV (wording abridged) | Typical products derived from them |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cereals containing gluten, namely wheat (such as spelt and Khorasan wheat), rye, barley, oats or hybridised strains thereof | Flour, semolina, breadcrumbs, malt, beer, seitan, flour-thickened sauces; soy sauce usually contains wheat |
| 2 | Crustaceans | Prawns, crab, lobster, crustacean extracts, shrimp and prawn paste |
| 3 | Eggs | Egg powder, mayonnaise, fresh egg pasta, egg wash on pastry, consommé clarified with egg white |
| 4 | Fish | Fish sauce, fish stock, surimi, anchovies in Worcestershire and Caesar dressing |
| 5 | Peanuts | Peanut oil, peanut butter, peanut flour, satay sauces, Asian spice pastes |
| 6 | Soybeans | Tofu, miso, soy sauce, soy lecithin in chocolate and baked goods, textured soy protein |
| 7 | Milk (including lactose) | Butter, cream, cheese, yoghurt, whey and milk powder, casein, lactose as a carrier |
| 8 | Tree nuts, namely almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, Brazil nuts, pistachios, macadamia or Queensland nuts | Marzipan, nougat, nut oils, ground nuts in doughs and coatings, pesto |
| 9 | Celery | Celery salt, bouillon, soup greens, stocks, many spice blends |
| 10 | Mustard | Mustard powder, Dijon, dressings, vinaigrettes, marinades |
| 11 | Sesame seeds | Tahini, hummus, sesame oil, sesame on buns and breads |
| 12 | Sulphur dioxide and sulphites (above 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/l, expressed as SO₂) | Wine, dried fruit, dried mushrooms, processed potato products, pickled vegetables |
| 13 | Lupin | Lupin flour in gluten-free blends, lupin protein in vegan substitute products |
| 14 | Molluscs | Mussels, oysters, squid, snails, oyster sauce |
The category names in this table are abridged; the full, binding wording is in Annex 6 LIV. The second column is kitchen practice, not a legal statement: whether a specific product contains the allergen is decided by the recipe, and what is authoritative is the label and the supplier specification.
What does “including products derived from them” mean?
What is subject to mandatory declaration is not only the raw ingredient but every product made from it that carries the allergen on. That is exactly what lies behind the formula “and products derived from them” in Annex 6.
In practice this means: “wheat” refers not only to the grain but also to flour, semolina, breadcrumbs, malt and beer, and thus to the flour-thickened sauce as much as to the soy sauce that usually contains wheat. “Milk” refers to butter, cream, cheese, yoghurt, whey powder and casein. “Eggs” refers to the egg powder in the dough as much as to the mayonnaise in the dressing. The allergen travels with the product through the entire chain, even when the original ingredient can no longer be recognised on the plate.
That is why an allergen check never stops at the main product but includes every processed ingredient: stocks, sauces, coatings, spice blends. How to record this systematically is shown by the free allergen matrix template.
Are there exceptions on the list?
Yes. Annex 6 LIV expressly excludes certain heavily processed products in which, according to scientific assessment, the allergenicity has been lost. The exceptions are tied to the respective category. The ones that matter most in practice:
- Cereals containing gluten: wheat-based glucose syrups (including dextrose), wheat-based maltodextrins and barley-based glucose syrups are excluded; likewise cereals used to make alcoholic distillates.
- Soybeans: fully refined soybean oil and fat, and certain tocopherols and phytosterols derived from soy.
- Fish: fish gelatine used as a carrier for vitamin or carotenoid preparations, and fish gelatine or isinglass used as a fining agent in beer and wine.
- Tree nuts and milk: nuts and whey used to make alcoholic distillates.
- Sulphur dioxide and sulphites: subject to mandatory declaration only at a concentration above 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/l, expressed as SO₂. Below that, the duty does not apply.
This list names the most common exceptions, not all of them. What is exhaustive and binding is solely the wording of Annex 6 LIV; when in doubt, check there.
Where do the Swiss list (LIV) and the EU list (1169/2011) differ?
In substance the two lists coincide: the same 14 categories, the same logic of products derived from them. Switzerland deliberately aligned its allergen labelling with the EU so that products work across the border.
The most visible difference lies in the wording of the nut category. In Annex 6, the Swiss LIV names “Hartschalenobst, Schalenfrüchte oder Nüsse”, that is, all three synonyms side by side. At the same point, the German text of Annex II of EU Regulation 1169/2011 speaks only of “Schalenfrüchte”. Both times the same list is meant: almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, Brazil nuts, pistachios, macadamia or Queensland nuts.
For a business in Switzerland this is not a matter of detail in the choice of terms but one of legal source: what is authoritative is the wording of the LIV, not that of the EU Regulation. Whoever labels a menu or matrix takes the LIV terms. Whoever sources products from the EU area meets the EU wording on the label there and may read it as equivalent.
What is NOT on the list, and does that mean “it doesn’t matter”?
Not on the Annex 6 list are, among others, coconut and pine nuts, which despite their name do not belong to the nut category. Insects such as house-cricket powder (Acheta domesticus, authorised in Switzerland since 2023) are likewise not a separate allergen category.
But “not subject to mandatory declaration under Annex 6” does not mean “without any duty to inform”. For house-cricket powder there are separate information duties on allergenicity: according to the BLV, it can trigger reactions in people allergic to crustaceans, molluscs or dust mites, and the business must be able to inform about this. And where a guest asks about an ingredient that is not on the list, the general duty of care remains: a truthful answer is always owed, regardless of whether the ingredient is one of the 14 categories.
Conversely: the 14 categories are the mandatory part, not the upper limit of what can harm a guest. The list is a minimum, not a free pass for everything that is not on it.
How do you label these allergens correctly?
Towards guests the labelling runs via the menu, a poster or a clearly visible written notice with oral information; the permitted formats and the conditions for oral information are in the article Allergen declaration in restaurants. Internally, before that, a complete mapping is needed: which dish contains which of the 14 allergens, across all ingredients and sub-recipes.
This is exactly where the matter of “products derived from them” and the sub-recipes becomes hard to keep track of. A stock carries its celery into every sauce, the sauce into every dish; a product switch at the supplier can introduce a new allergen that runs through the entire chain. By hand this means tracking every change everywhere. Simply converting portion sizes, by the way, changes nothing about the allergens; for that our free recipe scaler is enough.
For the allergen mapping itself we are building Trolevo: recipes with nested sub-recipes whose allergens roll up automatically, from all ingredients and sub-recipes, into one allergen label per dish. Change a sub-recipe, and the label changes everywhere with it. This helps you meet the labelling duty; responsibility for correct information stays with the business. Trolevo is in development – get early access.
Sources
- LIV – FDHA Ordinance on Food Information, SR 817.022.16 (German, as of 1 July 2025)
- EU Regulation No 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers (consolidated version, Annex II)
- BLV – Information in loose sale (German)
- GastroSuisse – Allergenic foods (German)
This article is general information, not legal advice. The binding texts are the statutes (LMG, LGV, LIV) and the information provided by the cantonal enforcement authorities.