Meal planning with food allergies
Last checked
Read the label every time, because a brand can change its recipe. Keep one list of what each person must avoid, plan dinners around the people at the table, and keep a few go-to dinners whose labels you have already read. An app can help with the planning, but it can't read the package in your hand. Always check labels.
Read the label every time
A label is the only thing that describes the package you are holding. The same product can come in a new size, from a new factory, or with a changed recipe. Each time you buy it and again each time you cook with it, read the ingredient list and the allergen statement: check labels.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration lists nine major food allergens (milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame), so you still check labels. Most packaged foods regulated by the FDA must name them on the label (FDA, checked 2026-10-26). See the FDA's page for the list and what it covers. An allergy to something outside that list still needs its own care, and the label may not mention it, so always check labels.
Keep one list per person
Write down what each person at your table must avoid, in one place, with the exact foods. "Nuts" can mean peanuts, tree nuts or both, so say which and check labels. When the list lives in one place, a cook, a babysitter or a guest's host can read the same list you do. Always check labels.
Plan around the people at the table
A week of dinners looks different when you plan for the people who are actually eating. Start from the people at the table that night, not from everyone you ever cook for. A dinner that works on a night when only two people eat may need a change on the night a guest comes. Check who is eating before you check the recipe. Always check labels.
Keep a few go-to dinners
Keep a short list of dinners you have already read the labels for, so a busy night doesn't mean starting from nothing. Note the brand of each packaged ingredient, because a different brand is a different label. When a recipe uses a new product, read its label before you add the recipe to the list. Always check labels.
What an app can and cannot check
An app can keep the list for you and leave out dinners that match it. Pantry Assistant does this: you add each person's allergies once, and Reload leaves out the dinners that match the allergies of the people eating tonight, saying whose allergies it checked, so you still check labels.
It is a planning convenience, not a promise about what anyone can eat. It relies on the ingredients it knows about, and it can miss things, like a brand that changed its recipe. It cannot read the label on your package. Always check labels.