Allergens and food safety

Last updated 16 July 2026

Please read this before ordering if you or anyone eating has a food allergy or intolerance.

Home kitchens are not commercial kitchens

Hi-Eat cooks prepare food in their own homes. A home kitchen cannot offer the separation that a commercial kitchen can. Nuts, milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, sesame, gluten and other allergens may be present in the kitchen even when they are not in the dish you ordered.

If your allergy is severe, we cannot promise a dish is free of an allergen, and you should not rely on us to.

Speak to the cook

Every order lets you leave a note for the cook. Use it. Say what the allergy is and how serious it is, rather than asking for a dish without an ingredient - a cook needs to know whether traces matter.

A cook who is not confident they can cook safely for you should say so, and we would rather they did.

Ingredients change

Home cooking is not standardised. The same dish may be made slightly differently from one week to the next depending on what a cook could buy. Ask each time rather than assuming a dish is the same as last time.

Events

If you are hosting, collect allergy information from your guests and pass it to the cook before the event, not on the day.

Hygiene ratings

Cooks provide a food hygiene certificate before they are approved. Where a cook has a local authority hygiene rating we show it on their page.

Reporting a problem

If you became unwell after an order, tell us through get help with the order number. We take it seriously and we act on it.