Food, allergens and nutrition

Our allergen tags are a guess made by software, not a checked declaration. They are worked out by matching words in ingredient names, so they can miss things and they can flag things that are not there. If you or anyone you are cooking for has a food allergy or intolerance, read the label on every actual product you use, and do not rely on this site to keep them safe. For a serious allergy, the packet in your hand is the only source that counts.

The rest of this page explains why, so you can judge for yourself where the tags are useful and where they are not.

Each recipe's ingredient names are scanned for words we recognise. “Butter” or “parmesan” adds a milk tag. “Tahini” adds sesame. “Prawn” adds shellfish. That is the whole mechanism: pattern matching on text.

Which means it goes wrong in predictable ways:

• Hidden ingredients are invisible to it. A stock cube can contain wheat, milk or soy. Soy sauce usually contains wheat. Curry pastes contain shellfish. Chocolate can contain milk and nuts. If it is not in the ingredient's name, we do not see it.
• Brands differ. Two packets with the same name can have completely different allergen declarations, and manufacturers change recipes without telling anyone.
• We cannot see “may contain” warnings or anything about cross-contamination in the factory, the shop or your kitchen.
• Unusual or non-English ingredient names may not match our patterns at all — a real risk here, because much of the catalogue is food from around the world.
• It over-flags too. A word can match when the allergen is not really present, which is annoying rather than dangerous, but it means a tag being present does not prove anything either.
• It does not cover everything Australian labels must declare. We tag milk, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, fish and shellfish. We do not tag lupin, sulphites, added gluten from other grains, or the many other things a person can react to.

Use the tags to shortlist recipes, then do the real check yourself:

• Read the ingredient list and allergen statement on every product you buy and use.
• Pay attention to the ones people forget: sauces, stocks, pastes, marinades, spice blends, bread, chocolate, processed meat and anything labelled “flavouring”.
• Remember that any substitution — including one this site suggests — changes the allergen picture completely.
• For a severe allergy, ask the person or their doctor rather than a website, and know where the adrenaline autoinjector is.

Diet labels such as vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free work the same way and carry the same limits. They are our best reading of the ingredient list, not a certification, and nothing here has been through a “free from” audit.

Every figure — calories, protein, carbohydrate, fat, fibre, sugar, sodium — is calculated by adding up published averages for each ingredient, using standard reference tables of the USDA type, then dividing by the servings. Nothing here has been near a laboratory.

The gap between that and your dinner can be large, because:

• the average value for “cheese” or “beef mince” is not the value for the one you bought;
• how much oil a food absorbs, how much liquid boils away and how much fat is left in the pan all change the result;
• “serves four” is a judgement, and your four servings may not be the same size as ours;
• your own measuring, your substitutions and your pan all move the numbers.

Treat them as a rough comparison between recipes — useful for “is this the lighter option?”, not for anything that has to be accurate. If you are counting nutrients for a medical reason — diabetes, kidney disease, a low-sodium diet, a medically supervised eating plan — use the figures on the packaging and talk to your doctor or an Accredited Practising Dietitian. Nothing on this site is medical or dietary advice, and it is not a substitute for someone who knows your situation.

Cook Mode timers come from the recipe steps. They are prompts to look at the pan, not a promise that the food is cooked through. Ovens, pans, stove power and the thickness of a piece of meat all vary, so check the food itself — and for meat, a thermometer beats a timer.

We deliberately do not invent food-safety numbers. You will not find us telling you how many days a leftover keeps or how many times you can reheat something, because that depends on your fridge, your kitchen and the food, and getting it wrong makes people sick. For that, use Food Standards Australia New Zealand or your state or territory health department, which publish proper guidance and keep it current.

Some recipes involve raw or lightly cooked eggs, raw fish, rare meat, unpasteurised cheese, sprouts or alcohol. These are normal foods that carry extra risk for some people — during pregnancy, for young children, for older people and for anyone with a weakened immune system. If that is you or your guests, choose a different recipe or take advice.

If you think you have food poisoning, treat it as a medical matter, not a cooking one. In Australia, call 000 in an emergency, or contact your doctor or healthdirect.

Much of the catalogue began as data imported from TheMealDB and was then adapted here — see copyright and takedowns. Imported recipes were not developed and tested in our kitchen from scratch, so quantities and timings can be approximate, and ingredient names sometimes reflect a different country's products. We fix what we find. Telling us what you found is genuinely useful.

AI-suggested adaptations sit one step further out: they are a rewrite of a recipe, not a tested version of it, and they do not re-check allergens. See how we use AI.

If you spot a missing allergen, a wrong ingredient, an impossible quantity or a nutrition figure that cannot be right, email hello@iwantsomefood.com with the recipe name and what you noticed. Allergen reports go to the front of the queue. This is the fastest way the catalogue gets better, and we would rather hear it from you than not hear it.

Everything on this site is general information for home cooking. It is not medical, dietary or food-safety certification, and you are the person deciding what to cook and serve. To the extent the law allows we are not responsible for loss that comes from relying on it — and nothing here removes the rights you have under the Australian Consumer Law, or our liability for death or personal injury caused by us. See our terms of service.