Restaurant QR Menus Across Europe
A restaurant QR menu is your menu published as a mobile web page that guests open by scanning a QR code at the table — no app to download. Across the EU it also has to carry allergen information: Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 requires the 14 allergens in Annex II to be given in writing, per dish, before the guest orders. The pages below cover which rules apply in each country and what the menu is called locally.
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Choose your country
Each country page covers the allergen rules that apply there, the local term restaurant owners search for, and the setup steps.
| Country | Allergen rules | Local term |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | EU Regulation No. 1169/2011 | QR-Speisekarte |
| Netherlands | EU Regulation No. 1169/2011 | digitaal menu |
| Austria | EU Regulation No. 1169/2011 | digitale Speisekarte |
| Belgium | EU Regulation No. 1169/2011 | digitaal menu |
| UK | UK Food Information Regulations (FSA) | digital menu |
| France | EU Regulation No. 1169/2011 | menu numérique |
| Spain | EU Regulation No. 1169/2011 | menú digital |
| Italy | EU Regulation No. 1169/2011 | menu digitale |
| Turkey | Turkish Food Labelling Regulation | dijital menü |
| Poland | EU Regulation No. 1169/2011 | menu cyfrowe |
| Switzerland | Swiss Food Information Ordinance (LIV) | digitale Speisekarte |
| Sweden | EU Regulation No. 1169/2011 | digital meny |
| Denmark | EU Regulation No. 1169/2011 | digitalt menukort |
Frequently asked questions
- Do EU allergen rules apply to QR menus the same way as printed menus?
- Yes. Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 applies to the information a food business gives the consumer, not to the medium it is given in. A QR menu has to carry the same allergen information as a printed one: in writing, for each dish, available before the guest decides what to order.
- Which countries are covered?
- Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom. EU member states follow Regulation 1169/2011; the UK follows the retained version of the same rules, and Switzerland and Turkey have their own equivalents.
- Does the menu need to be in the local language?
- Allergen information has to be in a language the consumer in that member state can easily understand, which in practice means the official language of the country. You can publish the same menu in several languages at once, and the allergen labels carry across to each of them.
- Is a QR menu enough on its own to be compliant?
- It covers the written, per-dish, pre-purchase requirement, which is the part most restaurants get wrong on paper. It does not replace your responsibility for the accuracy of the data: you enter which allergens each dish contains, and you remain responsible for keeping that correct as recipes change.
