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Tree nuts

Tree nuts is entry 8 of the fourteen substances Annex II of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 makes declarable. IgE-mediated food allergy — severe storage-protein type, or mild birch-pollen-related type. Where it hides, which exemptions apply, and what it cross-reacts with.

This is reference information, not a diagnosis and not a treatment plan. A pollen calendar cannot tell you what you are allergic to, and no page can clear a food as safe for you — only the label on the packet in your hand and the clinician who knows your history can do that. Anything beyond mild, short-lived symptoms in the mouth or nose — swelling that affects breathing or swallowing, hives away from the mouth, wheeze, vomiting or faintness — is an emergency question, not a reading question.

What the law says

Annex II, entry 8: “Nuts, namely almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecan nuts, Brazil nuts, pistachio nuts, macadamia or Queensland nuts, and products thereof”

That wording carries the whole obligation. The substance must be declared whenever it is used in the making of a food and is still present in the finished product, even in an altered form, and it must be picked out inside the ingredient list by typeset — bold, capitals, italics, underlining or a contrasting colour. There is no legal requirement for a separate allergen box, so the ingredient list is where to look.

Source: Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex II and Article 21 · checked 2026-09-06

What the reaction actually is

Entry 8 names eight specific nuts and no others, so a label must say which nut. As with peanut, there are two very different clinical pictures: heat-stable storage proteins such as Cor a 9 and Cor a 14 in hazelnut or Jug r 1 in walnut, which cause systemic reactions; and birch-related PR-10 proteins such as Cor a 1, which cause an itchy mouth in a hay-fever sufferer. The same nut, two conditions.

Who gets it, and does it last

Storage-protein tree nut allergy usually persists into adult life and is a common cause of severe reactions. The birch-related form tracks the pollen season, often gets worse in spring, and is usually confined to the mouth and throat.

Where it hides

• Marzipan and praline
• Pesto, often made with cashew rather than pine nut
• Vegan cheese and cream substitutes
• Cereal bars, muesli and breakfast cereal
• Nut oils in dressings
• Baklava and Middle Eastern sweets

Hazelnut is the tree nut that matters most in birch country, and almond runs through the marzipan and Christmas baking of the whole region. The itchy mouth after a handful of hazelnuts in May is one of the most frequently reported food reactions here, and it is birch.

Cross-reactions

Cashew and pistachio cross-react strongly with one another, as do walnut and pecan — they are close botanical pairs. Hazelnut sits with the birch group. Reactions across the whole nut list are not automatic, and a person allergic to one nut is not necessarily allergic to the rest; that is established by testing.

The labelling detail

Because the Regulation names the eight nuts, coconut, pine nut, chestnut and nutmeg are not on this list and are not declarable as nuts. That is a legal fact about labelling, not a statement that nobody reacts to them.

Exempt from declaration under Annex II:

• Nuts used for making alcoholic distillates, including ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin

Precautionary wording — “may contain”, “made in a factory that also handles” — is a separate matter: it is voluntary, unstandardised and carries no threshold. How strictly to treat it is a clinical decision, not a reading of the label. The labelling explainer sets out the whole frame, including what happens in restaurants and bakeries where there is no pack at all.

What gets misread

The great confusion of this entry is treating "nut allergy" as one thing. Peanut is a legume on a different entry, coconut and pine nut are not on the list at all, and the difference between a birch-related mouth itch and a storage-protein anaphylaxis risk is the whole clinical question.

Sources: Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex II · Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 828/2014 (gluten claims) · WHO/IUIS Allergen Nomenclature · season windows from the national aerobiology monitoring programmes of Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway · cross-reaction patterns paraphrased from the allergy literature and EAACI material · checked 2026-09-06

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