Guide
Allergens in sunflower lecithin
Sunflower lecithin is not soya. If your chocolate, icing or margarine uses sunflower lecithin instead of soya lecithin, you do not emphasise soya for that emulsifier. If any other ingredient still contains soya, soya stays.
Reviewed against official guidance.SourcesNot legal advice.
The usual pattern
The swap is common in dairy-free and soya-aware chocolate. The rest of the recipe decides the label. A sunflower-lecithin chocolate can still contain milk.
What to check in sunflower lecithin
| What you see | What it means on a PPDS label |
|---|---|
| Sunflower lecithin | Not soya |
| Soya lecithin | Soya |
| Milk in the same chocolate | Milk |
| May contain soya | A precaution, not a substitute for an ingredient that is soya |
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
Cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, emulsifier: sunflower lecithin.
Where it shows up
Chocolate, spreads, bakery fats and confectionery coatings.
Copying last month’s soya label
When the chef changes the chocolate to a sunflower-lecithin bar, the old label over-declares soya if nothing else contains it — or under-declares if you delete soya while another ingredient still has it.
E322 needs a source. Sunflower and soya are not interchangeable on the label.
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
Do I emphasise sunflower lecithin?
Does sunflower lecithin contain gluten?
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