Which of the Fourteen Allergens Is Hiding in Your Berlin Lunch?
German law makes a counter tell you about fourteen allergen categories, and celery and mustard reach into far more Berlin food than visitors expect. Pick the categories you avoid, see where they sit across twenty three things you actually get served here, and take away the German sentence that gets you the written record.
A three stage tool: pick your categories from the compulsory fourteen, read a dish by allergen grid over twenty three Berlin foods, then take the German sentence to the counter.
Use this free Berlin tool before you queue rather than while you queue. It sorts twenty three things you actually get handed in this city against the fourteen allergen categories German law makes compulsory, shows which ones carry yours in the standard recipe and which depend entirely on the kitchen, and ends with the exact German line that asks for the written allergen record a business has to be able to produce.
What the tool does
Pick the allergen categories you have to avoid from the fourteen the EU makes compulsory, and the grid shows where each one sits across twenty three things you actually get handed in Berlin, from a Currywurst to a Schrippe to a glass of Berliner Weiße. Every cell is one of three states: in the standard recipe, often in it and kitchen dependent, or not normally in it. The list reorders itself so the dishes carrying your category move to the top.
Why celery and mustard matter more than you think
Visitors expect nuts and milk to be the hard ones in Germany. They are not. Celeriac is part of Suppengrün and most stock powders, which puts celery into soups, gravies and sauces that never mention a vegetable. Mustard sits inside sausage meat, remoulade and potato salad, so refusing the yellow blob on the plate does not get you out of it. The reach chart in the first stage makes that visible in one look.
What the counter owes you
Annex II of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 fixes the fourteen categories. In Germany the LMIDV of 5 July 2017 extends the duty to food sold loose, so restaurants, bakery counters, market stalls and canteens are covered too. The information may be given out loud, but only where a written or electronic record exists and is easy to see on request. The last stage of the tool gives you that sentence in German.
What it is not
The grid is built from standard recipes, not from any particular kitchen, and it is not a safety judgement about a plate in front of you. It exists to tell you which question is worth asking. The answer that counts is the written allergen record the business is required to hold.