French Allergy Card: How to Say Your
Food Allergy in French

The one sentence structure to know

French allergy communication runs through a single pattern: Je suis allergique à/au/aux ("I'm allergic to") followed by the allergen, or the slightly more formal J'ai une allergie à/au/aux ("I have an allergy to"). To ask instead of state, use Est-ce que ça contient... ? ("Does this contain...?").

One practical wrinkle: French contracts à with the article in front of the noun. à + le becomes au (masculine singular: allergique au lait, "allergic to milk"), à + les becomes aux (plural: allergique aux arachides), while à + la stays à la (feminine singular: allergique à la moutarde) and à + l' stays à l' before a vowel. It's a small detail, but it's the difference between a sentence that reads as natural French and one that reads as a translation.

For a severe allergy, two more sentences matter — these are the exact lines printed on the AllergyPass French card:

Every major allergen in French

These are the same terms the AllergyPass card prints — the words used on French food labels and by French kitchens, not dictionary translations:

One label trap worth knowing: noix alone means walnut, but it's also the everyday French word people reach for to mean "nuts" in general. Fruits à coque — literally "shelled fruits" — is the safer collective term for tree nuts on a card, and compounds like noix de cajou ("cashew nut") and noix de pécan exist precisely to disambiguate from plain noix. Mustard and celery are worth including even though they can feel like an afterthought to travelers from outside Europe: both are among the EU's 14 mandatory-label allergens and appear constantly in French vinaigrettes, stocks, and prepared sauces.

How to say gluten-free in French

Gluten-free is sans gluten — increasingly printed on packaging and used by name by dedicated gluten-free bakeries (boulangeries sans gluten), a category that has grown significantly in Paris in particular. But it's worth pairing with the allergen term itself. France, as an EU member state, follows the Food Information to Consumers (FIC) Regulation's 14 mandatory allergens, which covers cereals containing gluten — wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt — as a labeling category, so naming gluten or blé (wheat) directly ties your request to what the kitchen is legally required to track. Our France food allergy guide covers the fuller picture: outside major cities gluten-free options are more limited, and traditional French sauces (roux, velouté, béchamel) are flour-thickened by default, so sans gluten alone on a menu describes an intention rather than a verified process.

It's also worth knowing that French isn't only useful in France. It's a working restaurant language in Wallonia (French-speaking Belgium), French-speaking Switzerland, and much of North and West Africa — so a French allergy card built here travels well past France's own borders, more so than almost any other single language card on this site.

Why a written card beats spoken French

Even confident French speakers get a severe-allergy sentence wrong under pressure — wrong article, wrong pronoun, wrong allergen entirely — and a busy French waitstaff relaying a spoken request to the kitchen adds another layer of possible loss. A written card removes both problems: the allergen list is exact, and it can be handed directly to whoever is actually cooking rather than paraphrased tableside. That's the whole premise behind the translation card approach, and it holds just as well in Brussels or Geneva as it does in Paris.

Frequently asked questions

How do you say food allergy in French?

Allergy in French is allergie. The phrase structure to use is Je suis allergique à/au/aux [allergen] — "I'm allergic to [allergen]." For example, a peanut allergy is Je suis allergique aux arachides. For anything severe, show it in writing: the same line printed on the AllergyPass French card is more reliable than saying it at a busy table.

How do you say gluten-free in French?

Gluten-free in French is sans gluten, a phrase used by dedicated gluten-free bakeries and printed on packaging under EU labeling rules. It's less reliable in a traditional bistro or brasserie, where most sauces are flour-thickened by default — naming the allergen directly, gluten (or blé, wheat), and asking specifically about sauces gets a more accurate answer than sans gluten alone.

Do restaurants in France accept written allergy cards?

Yes. France's EU-mandated 14-allergen framework means restaurants are required to have allergen information available, and a written French-language card gives kitchen staff something precise to check against rather than a spoken description translated on the fly. It's most consistently well received at high-end restaurants and modern bistros; traditional brasseries vary more, so confirming directly with the kitchen — not just the server — is still worth doing.