US Restaurant Allergen Menu Laws 2026

At the federal level, no — FALCPA and the FASTER Act only cover packaged foods, and the FDA Food Code treats restaurant allergen awareness as guidance. But that changed at state level in 2026: California requires the Top 9 major allergens to be declared on ALL menus (physical, digital, menu boards and QR menus) for chains with 20 or more locations from July 1, 2026, and New York requires allergen labels on food prepackaged on the premises from November 2026. Massachusetts, Illinois, Rhode Island, Michigan and Virginia already require allergen training or menu notices. The clear trend: allergen menu labeling is coming to the US, state by state.

California Senate Bill 68 — often called the ADDE Act — was signed in October 2025 and takes effect on July 1, 2026. It requires food facilities that are part of a chain with 20 or more locations nationwide (the same threshold as federal calorie menu labeling) to provide written notification of the nine major food allergens intentionally added to each standard menu item. The disclosure applies to physical menus, digital menus, menu boards and QR-code menu experiences. Cross-contact risks are not required to be disclosed. California is the first US state to require allergens directly on restaurant menus.

The nine major allergens recognized by US federal law are: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame. The first eight were established by FALCPA in 2004; sesame became the ninth with the FASTER Act, effective January 1, 2023. Together they account for the large majority of serious food allergy reactions in the United States. Note that the EU list is broader (14 allergens): it adds celery, mustard, sulphites, lupin and molluscan shellfish — so a system built for the EU 14, like IAMenu, automatically covers the US Top 9 and more.

The FASTER Act of 2021 made sesame the 9th major allergen for packaged food labeling, effective January 1, 2023. It does not directly force restaurants to label menus — but it defines the official Top 9 list that state laws like California's SB 68 now reference for menu disclosure. Practically, any US restaurant preparing for 2026-era compliance should track sesame with the same rigor as peanuts or milk: it hides in burger buns, bagels, hummus, tahini and many Asian dishes.

Roughly 33 million Americans live with food allergies (FARE), and a food-allergy reaction sends someone to the emergency room about every 10 seconds. Even in states with no menu-labeling mandate, restaurants face negligence liability: if staff give wrong allergen information or a menu omits a known allergen, the business can be sued for damages — and allergy-related verdicts and settlements regularly reach six and seven figures. Accurate, written, per-dish allergen information is the strongest protection, both for your guests and for your business.

Massachusetts pioneered it with its Food Allergy Awareness Act (2009): restaurants must display an allergen awareness poster and print a notice on menus asking guests to inform their server of any food allergy, and managers need certified training. Illinois has required ANSI-accredited allergen training for managers since 2021. Rhode Island, Michigan and Virginia have similar training or awareness requirements. California (menus, July 2026) and New York (prepackaged on-premises food, November 2026) are the first to require actual allergen labeling.

Yes — explicitly. SB 68 covers physical menus, digital menus, menu boards and QR-code menu experiences. That makes a digital menu the easiest path to compliance: instead of reprinting every menu when a recipe changes, a digital QR menu updates instantly and keeps the allergen disclosure accurate in real time. IAMenu goes further: its AI detects the allergens automatically for every dish, so the disclosure stays correct even when your kitchen changes an ingredient.

IAMenu's Super Chef AI analyzes each dish in context — name, ingredients, category and subcategory. A dish in the "Po' boys" category is flagged for wheat (bread) and likely crustacean shellfish (shrimp); a pad thai is flagged for peanuts; a burger bun for sesame. IAMenu is built on the EU's 14-allergen standard, which is a superset of the US Top 9 — so every US allergen is covered, plus five extra (including molluscan shellfish, which many American diners react to even though it is not a federal "major allergen"). The chef always keeps final control and can adjust any result.

IAMenu plans start at $19/month (Starter), with the Professional plan at $39/month and Premium at $69/month — and automatic AI allergen detection is included in ALL plans, because safety is not a premium extra. Every account starts with a 14-day free trial, no credit card required. Compared with the cost of a single allergy incident — or reprinting menus every time California-style rules expand — it is a small investment in being ahead of the 2026 wave.