The cake is on the tray and the stall at Saturday’s market is booked. In between sits the question nobody online answers straight: am I allowed to do this, and what do I have to sort out before Saturday?
Two questions, and almost everyone stirs them into one. Whether you have to give allergen information and whether you have to notify an authority have two legal bases and two answers. The first is yes almost every time. The second is often no. How a business declares the 14 allergens is in Declaring allergens in a restaurant.
On the legal quotations in this article. Swiss food law is published in German, French and Italian. There is no official English version of the ordinances quoted here, so every passage below is an unofficial working translation provided for information only, unless labelled otherwise. The binding wording is the German text linked in the sources at the end.
Do I have to declare allergens if I sell my own baking?
Yes. From the first piece you sell.
The reason sits in the part of the Foodstuffs Act that says what it does not apply to. Excluded is “the domestic manufacture, handling and storage of foodstuffs and utility articles for private domestic use” (art. 2 para. 4 let. c LMG, from the fedlex English translation, which has no legal force). The condition is the purpose: not the kitchen, not the person, not the quantity. Bake for yourself and you are outside the Act. Hand it on and the exception is gone.
What applies instead attaches to the goods and to the act of supply. “At the point of supply to consumers, foods must carry the following particulars” (art. 3 para. 1 LIV), and third on that list are “ingredients that can trigger allergies or other undesirable reactions”. At statute level it is blunter: “Any person who places pre-packaged foodstuffs on the market must provide purchasers with the following information about the foodstuffs” (art. 12 para. 1 LMG, same translation). Any person. Not any particular business.
That kills the most common hope. Neither art. 2 and 12 LMG nor art. 1 and 3 LIV know a minimum quantity, a turnover limit, a business size or a commercial register entry at which the allergen duty starts.
When do I become a food business, and do I have to notify anyone?
Anyone who handles food has to notify their activity (Meldepflicht). There is one exception, and it covers the notification only.
“Anyone who handles food must notify their activity to the competent cantonal enforcement authority” (art. 20 para. 1 LGV). And directly below it: “Excepted is the occasional supply on a small scale at bazaars, school fetes and the like” (art. 20 para. 2 LGV).
The definition behind it shows how low the bar sits. A food business is an “operational unit of an undertaking that manufactures, imports, exports, processes, treats, stores, transports, labels, advertises, distributes or supplies food (handles food)” (art. 2 para. 1 no. 1 LGV). The phrase in brackets is exactly the wording of art. 20 para. 1. And a folding table at a market and a home kitchen are not invisible to the law: art. 11 of the FDHA Ordinance on Food Hygiene (HyV) covers “non-stationary facilities such as market stalls, sales tents or sales vehicles” and “facilities used primarily as private dwellings but in which food is regularly prepared for placing on the market”.
The sentence everything in this article turns on: the exception in art. 20 para. 2 LGV releases you from the notification and from nothing else. It changes not one word of the allergen duties. They bind the food and the person who supplies it, and know nothing of size, legal form, turnover or frequency.
Where the line between occasional and regular runs, federal law does not say: no figure, no period, no number of occasions, and the two cantonal information sheets checked name none either. Enforcement sits with the cantons, so one call to yours settles more than any reading on the internet.
One thing can be said in the other direction: anyone who sells on a recurring basis is running a business in food law terms and notifies the activity to the canton (art. 20 para. 1 LGV, art. 11 para. 2 LMG). The act gives one yardstick: exceptions from the notification are meant for businesses whose activity “presents a low risk to food safety” (art. 11 para. 3 let. b LMG, from the binding German; the fedlex English says “negligible risk”, which is narrower). And the notification is a form, not a licensing procedure.
Two points from the Zurich and Lucerne information sheets, both in German. First, identical in both: producing food in private premises for consumers is not prohibited as such, but commercial production carries the same statutory hygiene and premises requirements as a food business. Second, only in the Zurich sheet: where a business is subject to the notification duty the inspector turns up unannounced, private production rooms included. Each describes one canton; what binds you is your own authority.
One relief to close on: you do not need a licence for your cake. Licences are for food of animal origin (art. 21 para. 1 LGV), and none is needed by “businesses that only manufacture, process, treat, store or supply food containing both products of plant origin and … milk products or egg products” (art. 21 para. 2 let. g LGV). A cake with cream and egg is exactly that.
Six lines that carry the article:
| Question | What it triggers | Where it says so | Does it apply to occasional selling? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do I bake only for my own household? | The Foodstuffs Act does not apply | art. 2 para. 4 let. c LMG | not applicable |
| Do I supply it, sell it, give it to outsiders? | Allergen information duty, in full | art. 6 LMG (placing on the market covers handing on free of charge) · art. 12 LMG · art. 3 para. 1 let. c LIV | Yes. The only exception that attaches to the person is in art. 39 para. 1bis LGV and covers only non-profit tax-exempt organisations |
| Do I have to notify the canton? | Notification duty | art. 20 para. 1 LGV | No, for occasional supply on a small scale at bazaars, school fetes and the like (para. 2) |
| Do I need a licence? | Licence for food of animal origin | art. 21 para. 1 LGV | No, for baked goods with milk and egg products (para. 2 let. g) |
| Loose or prepacked? | Decides sign or label | art. 2 para. 1 nos. 11 and 12 LGV | Both routes are open |
| Am I writing “gluten-free” on it? | 20 mg/kg and the nutrition declaration | art. 41 para. 1 let. a · art. 21 para. 2 let. b LIV | Voluntary, and usually the wrong call |
What has to be there in writing at the market stall?
Two things, and both fit on one A5 sheet.
The first is a notice, not the information itself. Allergen information may be given orally if “a clearly visible written notice points out that the information can be obtained orally” and “the information is available to staff in writing, or a competent person can provide it immediately” (art. 5 para. 1 let. d LIV). At a one-person stall you are that person. The sign may be small; it only has to be clearly visible.
Almost everyone misses the second: for bread and fine bakery goods other than long-life bakery products, whole or in pieces, the country of production has to be given in writing (art. 39 para. 2 let. d LGV). One line on the same sign. Guetzli (Swiss biscuits) and other long-life baking are excepted, and the written particular may be dispensed with where the food carries an indication of source under art. 48b of the Trade Mark Protection Act.
The paragraph above sets the frame: “Anyone who places food on the market loose must give the same information about it as about prepacked food. Written particulars may be dispensed with if consumer information is guaranteed in another way” (art. 39 para. 1 LGV). What can be dispensed with is the writing, not the information. You do not have to flag unintentional mixing, but you do have to be able to prove your measures; that is in the article on cross-contamination.
The smallest version: two things, one evening
First, one sheet per recipe. For a typical home baking range it could look like this; cross out what you do not bake, add what is missing.
| What I bake | Which Annex 6 ingredients are in it | How I know | All ingredients (for when someone asks) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marmorcake (marble cake) | Cereals containing gluten (wheat), eggs, milk | Recipe | ← attach the recipe |
| Zopf (braided loaf) | Cereals containing gluten (wheat), eggs, milk | Recipe | ← attach the recipe |
| Nussgipfel (nut croissant) | Cereals containing gluten (wheat), tree nuts (hazelnut), milk | Recipe | ← attach the recipe |
| Schoggi-Guetzli (chocolate biscuits) | Cereals containing gluten (wheat), eggs, milk, soybeans (lecithin) | The chocolate’s ingredient list | ← attach the recipe |
The third column is the point. Some of the answers are in the recipe, the others on the packaging of a bought ingredient, and that is where they get missed. Which products carry a category is in the list of the 14 allergens; with that beside you the sheet takes twenty minutes.
Second, the sign from the section above, plus the sheet in the crate. That is what art. 5 para. 1 let. d LIV requires. The fourth column covers the rest: “On request, it must be possible to provide the same indications about foodstuffs placed on the market without packaging as for pre-packaged foodstuffs” (art. 12 para. 5 LMG, from the fedlex English translation, which has no legal force), so the whole list of ingredients and not only the allergens. The recipe is that list. It just has to go in the crate with everything else.
The sheet gets looked at again when a recipe or a bought product changes. Not monthly, not in advance.
The extended version
Whoever sells regularly does more. That is the extension, not the entry point: notification to the cantonal enforcement authority, a full label for prepacked goods, and the allergen matrix once four recipes turn into a range. Plus the separation of private and business kitchen use both sheets describe: separated in time, the room cleaned before every run, food stored separately and labelled.
Then there is self-monitoring (art. 26 para. 1 LMG), and it does not hang on the notification duty: it binds whoever places food on the market, not only the business that has notified. For micro-businesses the law provides a simplified form of it (art. 26 para. 3 LMG). That eases the extent, never the allergen information: there is no business size at which less has to be declared. What it looks like on a small scale is in the article on cross-contamination.
And if I wrap the cake: what has to go on the package?
It is not the film that decides. It is the relationship between the wrapping and the supply.
Two ends are clear. Wrap it at the stall on the customer’s request and you are on the loose side; seal it at home and sell from the display over several market days and you are on the prepacked side. In between lies an area the ordinance leaves open: what counts is whether it was packed with a view to immediate supply (art. 2 para. 1 no. 11 LGV, wording in the article on cross-contamination). No number of hours appears there. In case of doubt, label as if prepacked; that is never wrong.
On the prepacked side the mandatory particulars of art. 3 para. 1 LIV apply: specific designation, list of ingredients, allergenic ingredients, date, the name and address of whoever manufactures or supplies the food, and country of production. The allergens sit inside the list of ingredients, not separately, and have to be “highlighted by the typeface, the font style, the background colour or other suitable means” (art. 11 para. 1 LIV). “Wheat flour” in bold is enough. Where no list of ingredients is required, “Contains” takes its place, followed by the Annex 6 designation (art. 11 para. 2 LIV).
| Supplied loose | Prepacked | |
|---|---|---|
| Allergen information | Oral, if a clearly visible written notice points that out (art. 5 para. 1 let. d LIV) | Highlighted in the list of ingredients (art. 11 para. 1 LIV); without a list, with “Contains” (para. 2) |
| Country of production | In writing for bread and fine bakery goods other than long-life bakery products (art. 39 para. 2 let. d LGV) | Mandatory particular (art. 3 para. 1 let. h LIV) |
| Nutrition declaration | Does not apply (Annex 9 no. 21 LIV) | Not for artisanal direct supply (Annex 9 no. 19) or below 25 cm² (no. 18) |
| Very small label | not applicable | Below 10 cm² only specific designation, allergens, date, GMO notice; ingredients on a sheet or on request (art. 3 para. 4 LIV) |
| “Gluten-free” | Only at 20 mg/kg or below (art. 41 para. 1 let. a LIV) | Same limit, plus the nutrition declaration it triggers (art. 21 para. 2 let. b LIV) |
Read the table once vertically. The allergen information is the only one that knows nothing of business size, turnover or frequency. It survives loose sale and it survives the small package: even under 10 cm² it stays on the label while almost everything else falls away. Everything else can be organised away. That cannot.
May I write “gluten-free” or “lactose-free” on my cake?
Technically yes. In practice almost never, and the line is more expensive than it looks.
“Gluten-free” is not a description, it is a regulated designation, permitted “if a food has a gluten content of at most 20 mg/kg when sold to consumers” (art. 41 para. 1 let. a LIV). A home kitchen does not measure that, and without a measurement the statement cannot be substantiated.
There is a trap on top of that. Artisanally produced food supplied directly to consumers is exempt from the nutrition declaration (Annex 9 no. 19 LIV), but write “gluten-free” or a lactose statement on the package and you make it mandatory again (art. 21 para. 2 let. b LIV). At a loose stall that does not happen: art. 5 para. 1 let. e LIV expressly switches the consequence off again there. A line you cannot substantiate buys you a nutrition table you would otherwise not have needed.
And the 20 mg per kilogram is not the figure from the contamination article. The 200 mg of gluten per kilogram in art. 11 para. 5 LIV trigger a duty to give notice and measure only what got in unintentionally; the 20 mg here permit a voluntary designation and measure the total content at the point of sale. A cake can sit at 150 mg/kg from contamination, trigger no duty to give notice, and still exceed the “gluten-free” limit seven and a half times over. The thresholds are in the article on cross-contamination.
What you can write instead is what is in it.
Is there an exception for selling cake at a bazaar?
Just one, and it attaches to you rather than to the baking. It is probably not yours.
It sits in art. 39 para. 1bis LGV: “Non-profit tax-exempt organisations may supply baked goods for which the information under paragraph 1 on ingredients that can trigger allergies or other undesirable reactions is not possible because of the collection and sales processes, to a group of persons designated by them as entitled to receive them, if that group is informed that: a. these baked goods may contain ingredients that can trigger allergies or other undesirable reactions; b. persons suffering from allergies or intolerances are advised against consuming these baked goods.”
Five conditions, all at once: a non-profit organisation, tax-exempt, baked goods, a group of persons it has designated as entitled to receive them, and information that genuinely is impossible because of the collection and sales processes. A private stall at a market does not meet that, not even when the proceeds are donated.
More important is what the exception’s existence proves. Whoever wrote the ordinance knew exactly how to release bazaar baking from allergen information, and did it solely for non-profit tax-exempt organisations with a defined group of recipients. That this one narrow release exists, and attaches to the person supplying, is the strongest evidence that no comparable one exists for other persons.
A second relief gets told wrong on a regular basis: the exemption from the nutrition declaration for artisanally produced food supplied directly (Annex 9 no. 19 LIV) exempts from that declaration and nothing else, and is probably the source of the story that small producers declare “nothing at all”. The list of ingredients and the allergen information stay.
Do the same rules apply in the EU?
In principle yes: two differences, and one point of agreement nobody expects. The one that matters most to you is the second: on loose goods Switzerland is stricter than the EU.
The agreement first, and it surprises people: both legal orders name the domestic kitchen. Chapter III of Annex II to Hygiene Regulation (EC) 852/2004 is headed “Requirements for movable and/or temporary premises (such as marquees, market stalls, mobile sales vehicles), premises used primarily as a private dwelling-house but where foods are regularly prepared for placing on the market and vending machines”. Switzerland has the same rule elsewhere: art. 11 HyV (SR 817.024.1), quoted above, covers the market stall and “facilities used primarily as private dwellings but in which food is regularly prepared for placing on the market”. Both turn on the same word: regularly. The difference is one of arrangement: the EU puts it in an annex, Switzerland in a separate FDHA ordinance.
Second, Switzerland is stricter on loose goods. Under art. 44(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 only the allergen particulars are mandatory across the Union; art. 39 para. 1 LGV requires the same information as for prepacked goods.
Third, the EU kept occasional selling by private persons out of the scope. Recital 15 of the same regulation: “Operations such as the occasional handling and delivery of food, the serving of meals and the selling of food by private persons, for example at charity events, or at local community fairs and meetings, should not fall within the scope of this Regulation.” A recital is not an operative provision, it is stated intent. The contrast holds: what the EU takes out of the regulation entirely, Switzerland in art. 20 para. 2 LGV takes only out of the notification duty.
If you sell in Switzerland, the Swiss text is what you go by. The comparison of the two lists is in the list of the 14 allergens.
How do you keep track once there are more than three recipes?
As long as it is a handful of recipes, the sheet above is enough. The point where it tips is not the number of cakes, it is the first shared base mixture.
That is what we are building Trolevo for: recipes with nested sub-recipes whose allergens roll up automatically into one allergen label per dish. Change the chocolate and the label changes in every recipe it sits in, at once. By hand that means finding every affected sheet and updating each one.
What it does not do, plainly: it does not decide whether you are subject to the notification duty, it does not print labels, it does not check the legal position, and it knows nothing of your kitchen. This helps you meet the labelling duty; responsibility for correct information stays with you.
And when four cakes become forty: more portions, not different ingredients. For the conversion there is our free recipe scaler. Trolevo itself is in development – get early access.
Sources
- LMG – Foodstuffs Act, SR 817.0 (German, as of 1 October 2024; fedlex also publishes an English translation with no legal force)
- LGV – Foodstuffs and Utility Articles Ordinance, SR 817.02 (German, as of 1 July 2025)
- LIV – FDHA Ordinance on Food Information, SR 817.022.16 (German, as of 1 July 2025)
- HyV – FDHA Ordinance on Food Hygiene, SR 817.024.1 (German, as of 1 July 2025)
- Cantonal Laboratory Zurich, information sheet “Produktion in privaten Räumen” (MD-00081, valid from 1.1.2020, PDF) (German)
- Canton of Lucerne, food control, “Merkblatt Lebensmittelproduktion in privaten Räumen” (HM1440V5, PDF) (German)
- Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, consolidated version and the original version for recital 15
- Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs, consolidated version
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.