Guide
Allergens in almond flour
Almond flour is almonds, a tree nut. Ground almonds, almond meal and almond flour are the same allergen. A flourless cake made with almond flour is not nut-free, and it is not free of allergens just because it has no wheat.
Reviewed against official guidance.SourcesNot legal advice.
The usual pattern
Blanched almond flour and ground almonds with skins differ in colour, not in allergen status. Some bakery mixes add wheat or lupin. Read past the word almond.
What to check in almond flour
| What you see | What it means on a PPDS label |
|---|---|
| Almonds | Tree nuts |
| Mixes labelled almond sponge | May also contain wheat, egg and milk |
| Coconut flour used instead | Not a tree nut |
| Peanut flour | Peanuts — a different allergen |
How to write it on the label
PPDS food needs the name of the food and a full ingredients list, with the 14 allergens emphasised every time they appear. The Food Standards Agency’s PPDS guidance is the practical reference. A typical ingredients fragment looks like this — yours must follow the specification of the product you actually use.
Example fragment
Almonds.
Where it shows up
Macarons, frangipane, financier, gluten-free sponges and biscuit bases.
Gluten-free described as allergen-free
Removing wheat does not remove almonds. The label still emphasises almonds, and egg and milk if the sponge has them.
Marzipan offcuts milled into a cake are still almonds.
Specification first
Brands differ. Treat this page as the usual pattern, then match the label to the tub, bag or recipe in front of you.
Questions
Is almond flour gluten-free?
Do I write nuts or almonds?
Official sources
Everything on this page traces back to these. Where they and we disagree, they are right — tell us and we'll fix it.
- Introduction to allergen labelling for PPDS foodFood Standards Agency / GOV.UK
- Labelling guidance for prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) food productsFood Standards Agency / GOV.UK
- Food allergen labelling and information requirements technical guidanceFood Standards Agency / GOV.UK