Guide
Allergens in breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs are wheat unless the bag says otherwise. They are a cereal containing gluten. Seasoned and Japanese panko crumbs are still wheat. Gluten-free crumbs are a separate product and may contain egg, soya or lupin instead.
Reviewed against official guidance.SourcesNot legal advice.
The usual pattern
Dried breadcrumbs are baked wheat bread, milled. Some include yeast, rapeseed oil, paprika and salt. The wheat is the allergen. A few golden crumbs add barley malt extract as well.
What to check in breadcrumbs
| What you see | What it means on a PPDS label |
|---|---|
| Wheat bread | Cereals containing gluten — name wheat |
| Barley malt extract in some crumbs | Barley, as well as wheat |
| Gluten-free crumb coatings | Check for egg, soya or lupin |
| Fresh breadcrumbs you make | Follow the loaf — milk bread brings milk |
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
Wheat flour, water, yeast, salt, rapeseed oil.
Where it shows up
Fishcakes, scotch eggs, goujons, stuffed mushrooms and traybake toppings.
The gluten-free tray next to the wheat tray
Using wheat crumbs on a product sold as gluten-free is a recipe failure, not a labelling tweak. Keep the bags apart and name the crumb on the label.
Rusk in sausage meat is also wheat. Do not treat it as a different, harmless filler.
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 panko gluten-free?
Do I write breadcrumbs or wheat?
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