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European menus are supposed to tell you about the 14 major allergens. In practice they tell you in footnotes, in a binder at the bar, or in a code that only the Tuesday waiter remembers. Reading a menu is a skill. It should not be a scavenger hunt.
The fourteen, in plain language
The list is fixed: cereals with gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soy, milk, nuts, celery, mustard, sesame, sulphites, lupin, and molluscs. A serious menu marks them on the dish, not in a paragraph at the back that says "ask the staff."
Numbers in brackets are common in Italy. They only help if the legend is on the same page as the dish. A "1, 3, 7" next to a carbonara means gluten, eggs, and milk if the legend says so. If the legend is missing, the numbers are decoration.
Where menus lie by omission
"May contain traces" is a stock phrase. Sometimes it is a real shared line. Sometimes it is a lawyer. You still need the direct ingredients: the butter in the sauce, the anchovy in the dressing, the walnut on the salad that was not in the title.
Dishes change with the market. A spring risotto and the autumn risotto are not the same allergen set. A PDF photographed in March is not a promise in September. The useful record is the dish as the kitchen serves it this week, with a price beside it.
What to do at the table
If you have a severe allergy, tell the room before you order, even when the menu looks complete. Tags reduce surprises. They do not replace a conversation about the fryer and the board. Point at the dish on your phone if that is clearer than the printed name.
FinderFood keeps allergens on the dish inside the restaurant page, which is also what search engines read. You should not need a separate URL for every plate. You need the plate, the price, and the warning in the same place you decide to go.
A small habit
Before you sit, open the dish and read the tags out loud to the person who cares. It takes a few seconds and it catches the pesto, the bun, and the "vegetarian" sauce that still has milk. That is the whole trick. The menu is a list of decisions, and the allergen line is part of the decision, not an appendix.
