Allergens & Dietary Info
What each dish contains is information a guest may stake their health on. SSP Manager is where the restaurant states it: for every menu item and every option, which allergens it contains or may contain, plus dietary tags, spice level and calories. The waiter apps, the kitchen screens and the guest's phone all read it from here.
This page covers what you enter, the location's Compliance settings, and the allergy record SSP keeps on every order.
An item nobody has reviewed shows Allergens not set — on your screens, on the waiter's, and on the guest's (please ask your server). It is never shown as allergen-free. Only a manager's explicit declaration makes an item "contains none of the listed allergens".
The allergen list
SSP uses the 13 priority allergens of the Canadian list:
| Milk | Egg | Peanut | Tree nut |
| Sesame | Soy | Wheat | Gluten |
| Fish | Crustacean | Mollusc | Mustard |
| Sulphites |
Wheat and Gluten are separate. A dish can carry gluten from barley or rye without any wheat, so mark each one on its own.
The names come from SSP, in the reader's language: a guest reading the menu in French or Spanish sees the allergen names in French or Spanish. You never translate them yourself.
Declaring an item's allergens
Navigation path: [Your Location] → Menus → Items
Open the sheet in either view:
- Grid — each item card has an Allergens row. Click it, or choose Allergens… in the card's ⋯ menu.
- Table — click the chips in the Allergens column.
The Allergens & dietary info sheet lists every allergen with three choices:
| Choice | Meaning |
|---|---|
| No | The item does not contain it |
| May contain | Not an ingredient, but it may get in through cross-contact (shared fryer, shared board, a supplier's warning) |
| Contains | It is in the dish |
An allergen sits in one list at most: picking Contains takes it out of May contain.
"Contains none of the listed allergens"
If the item contains none of the 13, there is nothing to mark — so the sheet asks you to say so. Tick Contains none of the listed allergens (Tick to declare that, as reviewed by the restaurant). Without that tick, an item with nothing marked stays Allergens not set.
The save button reads Save declaration while the item is still unreviewed and your changes will declare it.
Saving only the dietary tags, the spice level or the calories of an unreviewed item leaves it Allergens not set. The confirmation says so: Saved for … — allergens still not set. Only marking an allergen, or ticking contains none, records a declaration.
Once an item is declared it stays declared. You can change what it contains at any time, but you cannot take it back to "not set".
How it shows in the lists
| What you see | State |
|---|---|
| Amber Allergens not set badge | Nobody has reviewed the item |
| No listed allergens (muted) | Declared: contains none of the 13 |
| One chip per allergen, e.g. Peanut | Contains |
| Outlined chip may: Sesame | May contain |
Long lists collapse into +N.
Dietary tags, spice level and calories
The same sheet carries:
- Dietary tags — Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Halal, Kosher. These are claims the restaurant makes about the dish, not an allergen statement: a "Gluten-free" tag does not replace marking Wheat and Gluten as No.
- Spice level — Not rated, Not spicy, Mild, Medium, Hot, Very hot.
- Calories per serving — a whole number; leave it empty if you don't know. Guests see calories only if the location turns on Show calories (see Compliance settings); staff always see them.
Options that add allergens
A dish is often safe until a guest picks an option: Peanut sauce adds peanut, Add cheese adds milk. Record that on the option, and SSP adds it to any order line where the option is chosen.
Navigation path: [Your Location] → Menus → Customizations
Each customization card has an Allergens row. Click it to open Option allergens & calories:
- Allergens this option adds — No / May contain / Contains per allergen, as for items. The item's own allergens stay on the item.
- Adds none of the listed allergens — the explicit "none", as for items.
- Calorie change per serving — signed:
120for peanut sauce,-80for "no cheese".
An option with nothing entered reads No allergens recorded — data nobody has entered, not a promise that it is allergen-free.
Finding items to review
In the Items tab, Table view, the All allergens filter narrows the list:
- Allergens not set — every item still waiting for a review. Work through this list until it is empty.
- Contains or may contain allergen — every item that names that allergen in either list, e.g. Contains or may contain sesame before you change a supplier.
Compliance settings
Navigation path: [Your Location] → Settings → General → Compliance
The allergen and calorie information guests see, and how the kitchen handles allergies. Editing needs permission to change location settings.
Allergen disclaimer, per language
There is one Allergen disclaimer box per language (English, French, Spanish). It is shown wherever allergen information appears: the menu footer and the order review, and the waiter apps show it on the order screen as the prompt to ask about allergies.
- Each box starts with the platform default wording for that language, marked Platform default. Edit it and the badge changes to Your wording.
- Use platform default puts the default back. Leaving a box empty does the same. A location on the default follows any future change SSP makes to it.
- At most 2,000 characters.
- Readers always get the disclaimer in their own language — your wording if you wrote one, otherwise the platform default for that language, never another language's text. If you write your own wording in one language but not another, the box you left alone says Readers in … see the platform default.
The Calorie statement boxes work the same way and are shown beside calories when they are shown to guests.
The switches
| Switch | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Show calories | Off | Guests see each item's calories and what options add, with the calorie statement. |
| Kitchen must acknowledge allergies | On | An order with a declared allergy cannot be started or marked ready at a station until the kitchen acknowledges it. When off, the kitchen still sees the allergy banner; nothing is held. See Allergies on the kitchen screen. |
| Guests can declare an allergy | On | Guests ordering at the table or online can tell the kitchen about an allergy from their phone. When off, guests do not get Any allergies? and tell their server instead; allergies staff record still show on the guest's order. |
It is the step that proves the cooks saw the allergy before the dish was made — it protects the guest and the restaurant.
The order's allergy record
Every order keeps a record of the allergies declared on it and what happened next. Open an order from Orders (see Open an order); the panel has an Allergies section.
Declarations. Each allergy declared on the visit, with its allergens, the severity the guest gave (Preference, Allergy, Severe), the note in quotes, and who recorded it and when — Guest, or Waiter · Sam. A revoked declaration stays in the record, struck through, with revoked by … at …. An order with none says No allergy was declared on this visit.
Declarations count for the whole visit: if the table's earlier check was paid and a new round opened a new check, the allergies declared earlier still apply, and are labelled From check code.
Conflicts. Every dish that met a declared allergen: Pad Thai — contains Peanut, then how it was decided:
| Outcome | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not decided yet | Waiting. The section's header shows Waiting on a decision while a contains conflict blocks the send. |
| Guest chose to keep it | The guest pressed Keep anyway on their own phone |
| Kept by name | A staff member pressed Keep anyway; their name and the time are recorded |
| Dish removed from the order | The line was removed or cancelled |
| No longer applies | The declaration was revoked, or the dish no longer carries the allergen (an option removed, the dish's allergens corrected) |
A conflict on a dish from another check of the same visit says On another check of this visit.
Each line of the order also shows its own allergen chips — the dish plus every option chosen on it — with Allergens not set for a dish nobody reviewed.
The kitchen's acknowledgements — which station acknowledged the allergy, who and when — will join this record.