How to answer allergy questions on an online menu

How to answer allergy questions on an online menu: answer them before they are asked. A dish with a plain description, its declared allergens and its spice level settles most questions on the page. The rest arrive on WhatsApp.

Why do customers ask about allergies by phone?

Customers call because the answer is not on the page. An unanswered allergy question costs a phone call in the rush, or a lost order. Put the answer in the dish's popup instead.

The CDC's data brief on 2024 puts a diagnosed food allergy in 6.7% of US adults, about 1 in 15. Some places now require allergen labels on menus. California requires chain restaurants with 20 or more locations to list the nine major allergens on all their physical and digital menus from 1 July 2026. EU rules name 14 allergens, and in the UK food businesses must be able to tell customers which of the 14 are in each dish. Elsewhere the rules differ, so check with your local food authority.

How to answer allergy questions on an online menu: declare the allergens

GetMenu uses the same 14 allergens, and you declare them per dish. The answer then shows in the dish popup on your interactive digital menu.

1. Open Marketing, then Mystery item, and scroll to Allergen declarations. This needs the Growth or Pro plan.
2. For each dish, tick what it contains and press Declare. Declare with nothing ticked means "I checked, and it contains none of the fourteen".
3. Do not press Declare on a dish you have not checked. The popup then shows no allergen line, so it never looks safe by mistake. If you declared a dish by mistake, press Clear declaration.
4. Open the dish on your ordering page. The popup now reads "Contains: Gluten (wheat, barley, rye), Milk & dairy." or "The restaurant declares this free of the fourteen listed allergens."
5. If you upload the whole menu from a spreadsheet instead of typing it and choose Replace, the declarations are cleared with the old menu. The page warns you first, and a repair tool copies them back.

How to answer allergy questions on an online menu: the description, the spice level and the choices

Write the ingredients in plain words: "chicken in a peanut sauce with coconut rice", not "signature satay". The card may cut the description short, but the popup always shows all of it. Vegetarian, vegan and halal labels go in the description too. A photo shows what the dish looks like and how big the portion is, but only the declared allergens and the description say what is in it.

Set the spice level when you edit the dish, and customers see it on the menu card and in the dish's window. Turn the common requests into choices: add Extra spicy for customers who like it hotter, and every choice is printed in bold on the kitchen ticket. A "nut-free version" the kitchen can honestly make is a choice as well. Tick Must pick to make a choice required, so nobody forgets it.

If the kitchen cannot make the nut-free version tonight, mark it None left on the POS. It comes off the other POS devices and the online menu too, because there is one stock list for the counter and the online menu, and its counts fall as orders come in.

A note typed at checkout reaches the cook too, but a choice is safer, because the customer must pick it.

What if a customer still has an allergy question?

They reply on WhatsApp, and whoever holds the restaurant phone answers. The customer's confirmation arrives from your own number the moment the order is placed, with a link to the order's status page and no login needed. Nobody has to call.

The checkout note prints on the kitchen ticket at each station, and the managers' group reads it on the WhatsApp ticket. Counter, web and WhatsApp orders all print on the same kitchen ticket. An allergy note stands out: it prints in bold red above the dishes and shows as a red banner on the kitchen screen. The kitchen ticket and screen come with the POS add-on.

A guest ordering from a table QR code (Growth and Pro) types no address, because the table is the address. Nothing else changes: their allergy note prints the same way, and so does the note of a delivery customer who picks the building at checkout.

Agha Shah Zaman, a co-founder of GetMenu and a business technology analyst, puts it simply. "An allergy question answered on the page is a call that never happened and an order that was placed anyway."

What can the online menu not show?

It cannot filter dishes by allergen, and the cards show no vegan, vegetarian or halal icons, no calories and no ingredient lists. Those go in the description in your own words. The plans are on the pricing page, and the trial runs 15 days with no card.

Frequently asked questions

What are the 14 allergens?

Celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, and tree nuts: the list EU and UK rules use. GetMenu uses the same fourteen. A dish declared with milk and gluten shows "Contains: Gluten (wheat, barley, rye), Milk & dairy." in the popup.

Do restaurants have to list allergens on menus?

It depends where you are. EU rules name 14 allergens, and UK food businesses must be able to tell customers which of the 14 are in each dish. California requires chains with 20 restaurants or more to list the nine major allergens on their menus from 1 July 2026. Elsewhere, check with your local food authority.

What should I say to guests with food allergies?

Say what you know for certain and nothing more. In a reply, confirm what the dish contains, and say whether the kitchen can make it without the allergen. If a guest's note mentions an allergy, it prints in bold red above the dishes on the kitchen ticket and shows as a red banner on the kitchen screen, so the cook sees it first.

How do I write a dish description that answers allergy questions?

Name the main ingredients, the cooking oil and anything hidden, such as nuts in a sauce or egg in a batter, and put vegetarian, vegan and halal labels there too, because the cards have no dietary icons. On the Growth and Pro plans, declare the allergens from the list of fourteen as well, so the popup shows a Contains line. Set the spice level on the dish, and customers see it on the card.

What is the difference between Declare and Clear declaration?

Declare with allergens ticked says the dish contains them. Declare with nothing ticked says you checked and it contains none of the fourteen. Clear declaration removes what was declared, and the popup shows no allergen line for that dish. The difference matters: an unchecked dish must never read as safe.

Can a restaurant be held responsible for an allergy reply on WhatsApp?

In many countries, yes: the business answers for the allergen information it gives, on the menu or in writing, and a WhatsApp reply stays in the chat as a record. Answer from the declared allergens and the recipe, never from memory, and say so when you are not sure.