Allergen app for restaurants, pubs and cafés

Friday, 8:15pm, every table full. A customer on table 12 asks whether the risotto has celery in it. The server doesn't know, the chef is plating six mains, and the allergen folder is in the office under a stack of invoices. So the server guesses, or the customer waits ten minutes, or the chef shouts "I think it's fine".

None of those is good enough. The FSA's best practice guidance says staff should never guess about ingredients. An allergen app puts the right answer in the server's hand in seconds.

The problem with allergen folders and laminated sheets

Most venues already have allergen information somewhere. The problems are about getting the right version to the right person at the right moment:

• One copy, wrong place. The folder is in the kitchen; the question is on the floor.
• Out of date. The menu changed in September, the matrix didn't.
• Specials aren't on it. The board changes daily and nobody adds the soup to the sheet.
• Supplier swaps. The usual burger bun was out, the substitute has sesame, and nobody updated anything.
• New staff don't know where to look, and the ones who do are on their day off.

The legal duty is clear. For food that isn't prepacked, you must supply allergen information for every item that contains any of the 14 allergens, and keep it accurate. Since February 2025, FSA best practice for England, Wales and Northern Ireland is written information that's easy to find, backed up by a conversation. Food Standards Scotland also expects information on the 14 allergens to be available before purchase, and suggests a matrix for staff.

What a good allergen system looks like

• Every dish, every component, all 14 allergens. Sauces, garnishes, buns, frying oil.
• One master version. Not a laminated sheet plus a spreadsheet plus the chef's memory.
• In staff hands on the floor. Searchable by dish, by course, or by allergen.
• Locked down. Only the people responsible for accuracy can change it.
• Easy to update the moment a recipe or supplier changes.
• Backed by training, so staff know to ask every customer about allergies, check the information, and pass requirements to the kitchen in writing.

How ShiftComplete handles allergens

ShiftComplete is an everyday operations and rota app for UK pubs, restaurants, cafés, bars and hotels. Allergen information is one part of it.

Every dish mapped to the 14 UK allergens

Managers add each menu item and mark which of the 14 allergens it contains: celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soya, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, and tree nuts.

Grouped by course

Starters, mains, sides, desserts, bar snacks, kids' menu. Staff find dishes the way they appear on the menu.

Searchable from the floor

A server on table 12 opens ShiftComplete on their own phone, or the tablet behind the bar, and searches "risotto". The answer is there in seconds. Nothing to install: it runs in the browser on any phone, tablet or computer.

Manager-only editing

Only managers can change allergen information. Front-of-house and kitchen staff can view and search but not edit, so a well-meant tweak at 9pm can't quietly change the record.

Part of your daily routine

Allergen checks fit naturally into checklists. "Allergen information accurate for everything on sale today" is one of the opening checks in the FSA's Safer Food, Better Business pack, and in ShiftComplete it can be a required tick, named and timestamped, on the opening checklist. A "specials added to allergen list" check can sit on the days you change the board.

Worked example: a 6-person café

A café runs a fixed menu of 20 items plus two daily specials. The owner sets up all 20 items in ShiftComplete in an afternoon, working from recipe cards and supplier labels. Each morning, whoever opens adds the two specials before the board goes up, and "allergen info updated for specials" sits on the opening checklist as a named, timestamped tick.

When the café switches bread supplier, the owner updates the four dishes that use it, once, and every phone shows the new information immediately.

For the written information customers can see, the café keeps a printed matrix by the till and reprints it from the same list whenever something changes. Our free allergen matrix template is a good starting point.

Everything else in the same app

The reason to use ShiftComplete rather than a single-purpose allergen tool is that the rest of the day lives there too:

• Temperature logs for every fridge, freezer and hot-hold unit, with out-of-range readings flagged.
• Opening, closing and cleaning checklists that vary by weekday, with photo evidence.
• Rotas built from staff availability, published to every phone.
• Incidents and maintenance, including any allergen near-miss, logged with severity, status and resolution notes.
• Team announcements so a menu change reaches everyone, not just whoever was in the WhatsApp group.
• Reports and an audit log with CSV export.

What Kirkham Hospitality says

"The rota stopped being a Sunday-night argument the week we switched over. The chef stopped being the only person who knows what's in the kitchen. And the EHO turn up to a screen, not a box file." Graeme Kirkham, Owner, The Lounge Oswestry & Knock & Snitch

Read the Kirkham Hospitality story.

Pricing

£1.49 per staff member per month. Every feature included, no per-site fee, no contract, remove staff whenever you like. If you have more than 100 staff, talk to us. Start free for 60 days with no card. Set-up takes about five minutes, and you can book a free 15-minute set-up call if you'd like help loading your menu. Full details on pricing.

Who it's for

• Restaurants where servers field allergen questions at every table.
• Pubs with a food menu, a specials board and bar staff who also take food orders.
• Cafés with daily specials and a small team who all serve.
• Hotels running a restaurant, room service and functions from one kitchen.

A final word on responsibility: ShiftComplete helps you keep the records an EHO asks to see and get accurate allergen information in front of your team. It isn't endorsed by the FSA or any authority. The information is only as good as what's entered, and the conversation with the customer is still yours to have.