California chains with 20+ locations must disclose the "Top 9" allergens on menus starting July 1, 2026.
Disclosure only covers what's intentionally in a dish, not cross-contact risks.
Independent restaurants and small chains aren't covered at all yet.
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"Does it have any peanuts or sesame oil in it?"
"Are you sure there are no peanuts in it, like even in the garnish?"
These are the questions 9-year-old Addie Lao would hear her mom ask at every table, to every server, about every dish, before Addie could take a single bite.
Until one night, at a restaurant that labeled every dish with its allergens. Addie's mom didn't ask a single question. She later said watching Addie eat that meal moved her to tears.
By the time Governor Newsom signed SB 68 into law in October 2025, the bill carried Addie's name: the Allergen Disclosure for Dining Experiences Act, or ADDE Act.
Now it's on California restaurants to catch up, whether they're ready or not.
The ADDE Act requires California restaurant chains with 20 or more locations nationally to disclose major allergen information on the menu, either printed or through a digital menu if they have one online. The "major allergens" here means the "Top 9": milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, wheat, soy, and sesame.
So instead of asking every server who may or may not know the exact recipe behind a dish, customers can see everything they need to know right in front of them.
Backers of the bill are already framing this as just the start. AAFA's president has called it a precedent that could push other states to adopt similar rules, with the goal of eventually going further than California's version and covering smaller businesses like mom-and-pops too.
Yes they are. An estimated 4 million Californians live with a food allergy. Most of them share the same feeling Addie Lao grew up with: hesitating before taking the first bite.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also found that half of all fatal allergic reactions occur from restaurant food, and 25% of allergic reactions occur at restaurants, with 74% involving non-pre-packaged food. That means dishes made to order, not something you grab off a shelf with a label already on it.
However, there are still some noticeable gaps to the ADDE Act.
California chain restaurants are the only ones being targeted so far, but that doesn’t mean independent restaurants, food trucks, and small local chains can get away with it. And that’s not a small gap, a huge share of dining happens at exactly those more independent places. In fact, independent, single-location restaurants make up 62.2% of all restaurants in LA County, compared to just 26.5% for large chains.
The second gap is about how you define 'full disclosure.' Restaurants have to flag allergens they intentionally put in a dish, but they don't have to say anything about cross-contact, like a fryer used for shrimp also cooking the chicken tenders. It's up to the kitchen's own cleaning and prep protocols to catch what the law doesn't.
Another thing worth mentioning is that the California Restaurant Association has also flagged mislabeling as a risk. Something already printed on a menu could be breaking the law the moment a supplier changes an ingredient. So restaurants need a system that keeps menus accurate as ingredients change.
Staying compliant to avoid health code violations or possible lawsuits mostly land on the restaurant manager, head chef, or even the supply chain manager. Here are some ways that you can stay ahead of the risks:
Audit the supply chain before the menu, not after: If a supplier substitutes an ingredient, that change needs to be updated in the allergen record before customers start coming in.
Build an allergen checklist for all your dishes: A digital allergen checklist that staff can use to catch gaps every shift.
Train on cross-contact even if it’s not a requirement: A back-of-house allergen control checklist that covers shared fryers and utensils to catch cross contamination.
Document the training, not just the disclosure. The Health and Safety Code requires staff to know and spot all the nine major allergens.
The ADDE Act has been live since July 1, 2026, so any facility already covered by the federal nutrient-content disclosure rules has to provide written notification of allergens it knows or reasonably should know are in each menu item. So make sure your menus are up-to-date.
Sodexo runs food service across 33,000 locations in 45 countries, everywhere from hospitals to stadiums. That's a lot of people, and one allergen slip can affect millions of them.
But with digital tools like Mitti (by SafetyCulture), allergen checks now sit side-by-side with the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) checks Sodexo already runs. Everyone, not just the site manager, has a hand in it, part of the 250,000+ inspections Sodexo has logged since working with Mitti.
You really have to rely on good structure, good resources, and good systems to make it work successfully.
