Education
AllergenMaps now classifies every allergen flag in a medication's inactive ingredients into one of four tiers. This helps you understand whether an allergen is definitely present, may be present from cross-contamination, or depends on the manufacturer's sourcing.
The allergen is structurally part of this ingredient regardless of which manufacturer made it.
Example:“Wheat starch” always contains gluten because it's made from wheat. “Lactose monohydrate” always contains milk sugar.
The ingredient may or may not contain the allergen. It depends on the manufacturer's raw material source.
Example:Magnesium stearate (a common tablet lubricant) can be made from beef tallow OR from vegetable oils. The label rarely says which, so we show this as “Possible: Animal” in blue. If you need to know for certain, contact the manufacturer directly.
The ingredient itself doesn't contain the allergen, but it's processed in shared facilities with the allergen, creating documented cross-contamination risk.
Example: Oat-derived ingredients are gluten-free by nature, but most are processed in facilities that also handle wheat, so trace gluten contamination is common.
This ingredient-allergen pairing hasn't been categorized into one of the tiers above. Treat it with caution and verify with the manufacturer or a clinical pharmacist before dispensing.
You might notice that search results show a simpler “Contains X allergens” badge, while the medication detail page shows the full color-coded tier. This is intentional. The tier classification is server-side data that we deliberately don't expose to our public search index, to protect proprietary ingredient research. Click through to a medication's detail page to see the full risk picture.
AllergenMaps surfaces excipient data from FDA labeling and pharmacist research. It does not replace clinical judgment for a specific patient. Always verify the full excipient profile before recommending a formulation change.