Eating out with allergies in Gothenburg

What eating out in Gothenburg is like

General characteristics of the local dining formats — not a recommendation of any particular venue.

• Seafood is central to the city's cooking, so shellfish stock appears under sauces, soups and rice dishes that are not described as seafood. If you react to crustaceans or molluscs, the stock question matters more here than almost anywhere else in Sweden.
• Steam and airborne protein from boiling shellfish is a real consideration in venues with open kitchens and seafood counters. If you are in the small group who reacts to that, the room layout is worth asking about when booking.
• The city has a strong casual-dining and street-food scene, where service is fast and one fryer serves the whole menu. That format compresses the time available to answer an allergy question — a booked table gives the kitchen room to respond.
• Away from seafood, Gothenburg's Middle Eastern and South Asian kitchens are well established, which gives good options for a fish allergy, and good vegan coverage for dairy-free eating.

What the rules in Sweden give you

• EU Regulation 1169/2011 applies in Sweden. A restaurant, café or bakery must be able to tell you whether any of the 14 declarable allergens is an ingredient in what it serves, including food sold loose and unpackaged.
• Sweden allows that information to be given orally rather than in writing, provided the business makes clear — normally with a visible notice — that allergen information is available on request. So the absence of allergen symbols on a Swedish menu is not a sign that the venue has no information; you are expected to ask.
• The duty covers declared ingredients, not cross-contact. 'Kan innehålla spår av' (may contain traces of) is a voluntary warning with no legal threshold behind it, and a venue is not obliged to guarantee a nut-free or gluten-free kitchen.
• Livsmedelsverket (the Swedish Food Agency) sets the national rules and publishes recalls when an allergen has not been declared; day-to-day inspection is done by the municipality's own food-control unit (kommunens livsmedelskontroll or miljöförvaltning).
• If you react to food in a Swedish venue, you can report it to that municipality's food-control unit. Reports are how systematic problems get found — a single conversation with the waiter usually is not.

Phrases that get a useful answer

English works almost everywhere, but the Swedish wording reaches the kitchen.

• Jag är allergisk mot … — I am allergic to …
• Jag har celiaki / jag måste äta glutenfritt — I have coeliac disease / I need to eat gluten-free
• Kan ni kontrollera med köket? — Can you check with the kitchen?
• Finns det … i den här rätten? — Is there … in this dish?
• Kan ni laga den i en ren panna / ny fritös? — Can you cook it in a clean pan / fresh fryer oil?
• Det är en allvarlig allergi, inte en preferens — This is a serious allergy, not a preference
• Innehåller såsen nötter, sesam eller mjölk? — Does the sauce contain nuts, sesame or milk?

Allergen names in Swedish

The words on the supplier labels your server will be reading.

• gluten — gluten; vete — wheat; korn — barley; råg — rye; havre — oats
• mjölk — milk; grädde — cream; smör — butter; ost — cheese; laktos — lactose
• ägg — egg; jordnötter — peanuts; nötter — tree nuts; mandel — almond; cashewnötter — cashews; hasselnötter — hazelnuts
• soja — soy; sesam — sesame; senap — mustard; selleri — celery; lupin — lupin
• fisk — fish; skaldjur — crustaceans/shellfish; blötdjur — molluscs; sulfiter — sulphites

Common questions

Related guides

• All city guides
• All allergen and diet guides
• Hosting guides