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 reactions in 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 those allergens can be dangerous. Therefore, you can find special advice for allergy sufferers concerning our whole product range in Product Details. For years, we have also indicated possible allergy causing ingredients on the backside of our RITTER SPORT wrappers. 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.

Every care is taken to thoroughly clean a machine in which, for example, nut or milk chocolate has been produced. However, we cannot completely exclude the possibility that traces of nut or milk components will not be present in chocolate that is subsequently made in this machine. Because an allergy to peanuts counts as one of the most dangerous food allergies that exist, we also think it is particularly important to especially mention peanuts.

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

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