A severe food allergy is the one dietary constraint that China handles badly, and it is worth being blunt about why: the difficulty is built into how food is cooked and labelled here, not into anyone's willingness to help. Chinese kitchens are generous about dietary requests and will genuinely try. The wok is still the same wok.
This page sets out the environment you are walking into. It cannot make a restaurant safe, and nothing here replaces your own doctor's advice about travelling with your specific allergy.
Packet labelling is not mandatory yet#
This is the fact that surprises people most, and it is the one worth knowing before you buy anything in a supermarket.
Under the labelling standard in force today, declaring allergens on prepackaged food in China is not a mandatory labelling item. A packet may list its ingredients without flagging that they include an allergen, and it is under no obligation to warn about cross-contact in the factory.
That changes on a known date. GB 7718-2025, the revised national standard for the labelling of prepackaged foods, was issued by the National Health Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation on 27 March 2025 and takes effect on 16 March 2027, with a transition period to clear existing stock. From then, allergen declaration becomes mandatory across eight categories:
- Cereals containing gluten — wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt
- Crustaceans
- Fish
- Eggs
- Peanuts
- Soy
- Dairy, including lactose
- Tree nuts
Until that date, read the ingredient list itself rather than looking for a highlighted allergen line, and assume that the absence of a warning means nothing.
The structural problem is the wok, not the recipe#
You can order a dish with no peanuts in it and still get peanut protein, because the pan it was cooked in had peanuts in it four minutes ago.
This is not a Chinese-restaurant stereotype; it has been measured. A 2020 simulation study published in Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology prepared peanut-containing Asian dishes and then tested the shared equipment. Utensils that were not cleaned carried peanut protein in quantities running to hundreds of milligrams. After a plain water rinse — which is what a busy wok gets between dishes — measurable peanut protein in the milligram range remained. Reducing it substantially required washing with detergent.
Chinese restaurant kitchens are built for speed and for a shared cooking surface. A wok is wiped and reused; it is deliberately not scrubbed with soap, because the seasoning on the metal is the point. That is the mechanism, and asking for a dish without an ingredient does not address it.
The practical consequence is uncomfortable but honest: if your allergy is anaphylactic and trace-sensitive, ordinary Chinese restaurants carry a risk that no amount of clear communication removes. If your allergy is dose-dependent and you tolerate trace exposure, communication does a great deal of useful work.
Where the common allergens actually sit#
Peanut is the hardest, and it is not just the visible peanuts. Peanut oil (花生油, huāshēng yóu) is a standard frying and stir-frying oil in Chinese cooking, particularly in the south, where its high smoke point suits wok work. Whole peanuts are also a structural ingredient rather than a garnish in several regional cuisines — they are integral to Sichuan and Shaanxi dishes that a menu will not flag as nutty.
Sesame is everywhere and rarely announced. Sesame oil (芝麻油, zhīmayóu) is used as a finishing seasoning added at the end of cooking, and sesame paste is the backbone of northern dipping sauces, including the standard hotpot dip. It goes on last, which means it is often not thought of as an ingredient at all.
Soy is in nearly every savoury sauce, and shellfish turns up where you would not look for it — dried shrimp and oyster sauce are seasoning agents in vegetable dishes, which is the same trap vegetarians run into.
Dairy is the one that is easier here. Traditional Chinese cooking uses very little milk, butter or cheese, so a dairy allergy is markedly less constraining in China than in Europe. Western-style bakeries and coffee chains are the exception rather than the rule.
Say it in writing, and say the consequence#
The single most useful thing you can carry is a card in Chinese characters. The ordering guide says this in a line; it is worth expanding on why.
The phrase itself is 我对…过敏 (wǒ duì … guòmǐn) — "I am allergic to…". The problem is that a request phrased as a preference gets handled as a preference, and in a busy kitchen "no peanuts" lands in the same bucket as "no coriander". What changes the handling is naming the consequence rather than the ingredient alone: a card that says this causes a severe reaction and that the person will need a hospital is understood as a different category of request from one that lists a dislike.
Write it, do not say it. A card can be handed to the kitchen rather than relayed through a server, it does not depend on your tones being right, and it survives being passed to a second person. Have your accommodation write or check it — the phrase and translation tools that handle everything else will produce a literal translation, which is exactly what you do not want here.
Naming a specific dish you can eat is more effective than listing what you cannot. A kitchen given a positive instruction can act on it; a kitchen given a list of prohibitions has to reason about a menu it did not write in your language.
Medication, and the thing to sort out before you fly#
Bring what you need, in its original labelled packaging, with a copy of the prescription — the standing rule for anything you cannot easily replace locally.
For adrenaline specifically, sort it out at home. Sources disagree on the current regulatory status of epinephrine auto-injectors in mainland China: a 2025 review in Clinical & Experimental Allergy describes them as introduced and approved for clinical use in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area in 2023 with availability elsewhere in the mainland remaining limited, while a manufacturer's own announcement in the same period stated there were no approved community-use epinephrine products in China at all. They disagree about approval and they agree about the thing that affects you: you cannot count on obtaining an auto-injector in mainland China. Travel with what you have been prescribed, carry more than one if that is what your doctor advises, and keep it with you rather than in checked luggage.
In an emergency, the ambulance number is 120, though going to a hospital directly by taxi is often faster and operators rarely speak English. Know the name and address of the nearest large hospital in Chinese for wherever you are staying, saved on your phone before you need it.
What this page will not tell you#
It will not name restaurants or chains as safe. Staff turn over, suppliers change, and a kitchen that handled an allergy well last year is not a kitchen that will handle it well tonight — and unlike a wrong opening time, a wrong recommendation here has a consequence measured in an ambulance. Judge the individual kitchen in front of you, with a card in your hand.
The categories that genuinely reduce risk are the structural ones: hotel restaurants and international chains, which have written procedures and English-speaking staff; food you assemble yourself from a supermarket, reading ingredient lists; and simply cooked single-ingredient dishes over complex sauced ones.
Frequently asked questions#
Is it safe to eat in China with a peanut allergy?#
For a trace-sensitive, anaphylactic peanut allergy, ordinary Chinese restaurants carry real risk that communication does not remove, because peanut oil is a standard frying oil and woks are shared and rinsed rather than washed. A measured study of shared Asian-food equipment found peanut protein still present in milligram quantities after a water rinse. A dose-dependent allergy is far more manageable with a clear written card.
Do Chinese food labels list allergens?#
Not yet as a requirement. Allergen declaration on prepackaged food becomes a mandatory labelling item under GB 7718-2025, which was issued in March 2025 and takes effect on 16 March 2027, covering gluten cereals, crustaceans, fish, eggs, peanuts, soy, dairy and tree nuts. Until then, read the ingredient list itself and treat the absence of an allergen warning as meaningless.
How do I say I have a food allergy in Chinese?#
The phrase is 我对…过敏 (wǒ duì … guòmǐn), "I am allergic to…". More important than the phrase is carrying it written in Chinese characters and naming the consequence — that a reaction is severe and needs a hospital — because a request phrased as a preference gets handled as a preference in a busy kitchen.
Can I buy an EpiPen in China?#
Do not plan on it. Sources disagree about whether epinephrine auto-injectors are currently approved in mainland China, and agree that availability is limited, so bring what your doctor has prescribed, in original packaging with the prescription, and keep it in your hand luggage.
Is a dairy allergy a problem in China?#
Much less than in Europe or North America. Traditional Chinese cooking uses very little milk, butter or cheese, so most restaurant menus are naturally dairy-free. The exceptions are Western-style bakeries, coffee chains and hotel breakfasts.