Understanding Pizza and Allergens

If you eat with allergies, pizza presents a straightforward ingredient question—cheese, sauce, dough—but also a kitchen question. A pizzeria may handle your allergen well, or cross-contamination can happen in the prep area or the oven.

This page walks through what matters: what the FDA counts as a major allergen, what cross-contamination means in a pizza kitchen, and how to ask the questions that get you a safe answer. You know your allergies and your boundaries. A good restaurant will give you the information you need to decide.

The Three Things to Know

The nine major allergens

The FDA names nine major food allergens: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soy, and sesame (added January 2023). A pizzeria labels and separates these; if a pizza carries one, it says so on the menu or tells you when you ask.

Cross-contamination in the kitchen

A pizza kitchen shares prep surfaces, cutting boards, hands, and sometimes utensils. If a cook prepares a dish with peanuts and then touches your pizza dough, traces of peanut protein travel with it. Restaurants serious about allergies clean surfaces, use separate utensils, and change gloves between orders.

How to ask

Call ahead or ask the manager in person, not just a server. Be specific: "I have a severe shellfish allergy. Has this pizza touched a surface that has had shellfish on it?" A good kitchen answers honestly and gives you a choice.

Customer receiving a pizza delivery at the door

What Pizza Carries and What It Might Touch

Pizza dough is typically flour, water, yeast, salt, and oil—all gluten and sometimes eggs, depending on the recipe. The sauce is usually tomato, herbs, and garlic. The main allergen is cheese: milk, always.

Toppings vary widely. A place might use cured meats (soy), nuts (tree nuts, peanuts), shellfish-based sauces, or add-ons made with egg. The kitchen prep matters more than the ingredients: a nut topping ordered on one pizza creates airborne particles and surface contamination that travels to the next order if the cook doesn't change gloves and wipe down.

When you call, ask both: what's in this pizza, and what else does your kitchen handle on this shift? If they don't know or won't tell you clearly, that's an answer too—look elsewhere.

Welcoming restaurant storefront location on a neighborhood street

Additional resources

The FDA's food allergies page — the federal list of the nine major allergens, with sesame included since 2023
Food Allergy Research & Education — practical advice on ordering safely with an allergy, from calling ahead to carrying epinephrine