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The allergen compliance checklist for restaurants

Eighteen points across recipes, records, kitchen controls and service. Work down the list with your head chef and a printout of your menu. If you can tick every line honestly, an allergen question at table nine stops being a moment of risk.

The 14 allergens in English and Maltese

1. Recipes and ingredients

  • Every dish on every menu has a written recipe, including specials and staff-invented off-menu plates.
  • Each recipe lists sub-recipes: stocks, bases, sauces, marinades, dressings, breads.
  • Supplier specifications are on file for every bought-in item, including bread, ice cream, sauces and pre-marinated meat.
  • Alcohol used in cooking is recorded, because wine reductions commonly carry sulphites.

2. The written record

  • Each dish carries its own list of applicable allergens from the fourteen, not a menu-wide note.
  • The record is available to the guest before ordering, not after.
  • Guests are actively told where to find it, on the menu, table or by staff greeting.
  • The record exists in a language easily understood in Malta, in practice English and Maltese.
  • There is a single source of truth, and printed or digital copies derive from it.

3. Kitchen controls

  • Allergen ingredients are stored separately and clearly labelled.
  • Shared fryers, grills and pasta water are documented and communicated honestly.
  • Dedicated equipment or a cleaned-down procedure exists for a declared allergen-free order.
  • Ingredient substitutions require a record update before the dish is served again.

4. People and service

  • Every front-of-house member can locate the record within ten seconds.
  • New and seasonal staff are briefed on allergens on day one, before their first service.
  • There is one named person responsible for keeping the record current.
  • Staff never guess. The rule is check the record or ask the kitchen.
  • Allergen requests are passed to the kitchen in writing, on the ticket, not verbally across the pass.

The three lines that fail most

If you only fix three things this week

  1. 01

    Signpost the record

    Put one clear line on the menu telling guests where allergen information lives, and brief staff to say it out loud.

  2. 02

    Add celery and sulphites

    Go back through soffritto, minestra, stock cubes and any wine-finished stew. These two are the most commonly missed in Malta.

  3. 03

    Name one owner

    One person keeps the record current. Shared responsibility is how a supplier swap makes it to the plate but not to the menu.

What EU 1169/2011 requiresBilingual allergen tableAllergen menus in Malta

Questions

Checklist questions

Is this checklist free to download and share?
Yes. Print it, put it in your staff handbook, or republish it with a credit link to qarta.online. It is written for Maltese operators and hospitality associations are welcome to circulate it to members.
Does completing the checklist make me legally compliant?
It gets you through the practical work most restaurants miss, but it is not a legal opinion. Compliance in Malta is assessed by the Environmental Health Directorate against Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 and your own HACCP plan, so confirm your setup with your food safety adviser.
How often should I run through it?
Fully at the start of each season and whenever a menu changes, plus a short version whenever you take on a new supplier or a new front-of-house hire.
What is the fastest item to fix?
Signposting. Many restaurants already keep a decent allergen record but never tell guests it exists, which means the information is not genuinely available at the moment of choice.
How does Qarta cover these points?
The dish-level allergen tags, single source of truth, multilingual output and instant updates are handled by the platform. Recipes, storage, equipment and staff briefing remain your kitchen's work, which is exactly why the checklist covers both sides.

Let the menu keep the record for you

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