An allergy is an over-reaction of the immune system against certain exogenous substances. As opposed to common allergies such as hay fever, asthma or atopic dermatitis, the number of food allergy sufferers in Germany is relatively low. Only about two to six percent of adults and about four to eight percent of small children suffer from it. The most common symptoms are inflammation of the skin, reactions in the gastro-intestinal area or affect the airways. In extreme circumstances an anaphylactic shock is possible.

As the components of cocoa are not typical allergens and cause allergies only in rare cases, any reaction after the consumption of chocolate is in the main due to individual ingredients such as nuts, milk protein, soya etc...

For sufferers of nut and milk allergies, even traces of the allegens can be dangerous. Therefore, you can find here in the internet in Product Details special advice for allergy sufferers on our whole product range. On the backside of our RITTER SPORT wrappers we have for years indicated possible allergy causing ingredients. The familiar sentence, "Could contain traces of..." means that we cannot 100% guarantee allergy sufferers that traces of the named substance are not present in the product.

It is therefore not possible to completely rule out that even after thorough cleaning of, for example, a machine in which nut or milk chocolate has been produced, that traces of nuts or milk components will not be present a subsequently produced chocolate. We also think it is particularly important to especially mention peanuts, as the peanut allergy counts as one of the most dangerous food allergies.

Alongside typical allergies like nuts, peanuts, milk protein, tyramine, gluten, and soya, people who suffer from a contact allergy against nickel can also have a reaction to chocolate. Cocoa, in respects to chocolate, counts, just like cheese, to those foods with a high nickel content. However, preservatives, colourings as well as artifical flavourings that are in some chocolates may play a much greater role. As according to our very high quality demands RITTER SPORT contains none of these components, but only the best ingredients.

Only chocolate producers that completely avoid the use of certian ingredients, such as nuts, wheat or dairy milk, can guarantee that their chocolate is absolutely harmless for allergy sufferers.