Menus on your website: PDF or a proper page?

A proper menu page means the dishes, descriptions and prices are ordinary website text, not a photograph of a printed menu. Your existing website system may already let you create this. A bespoke ordering system is not necessary just to show a readable menu.

A PDF preserves a designed layout and can be useful for printing, a long wine list or an event pack. It can also be accessible when prepared and tested correctly. The problem is making customers use a print-sized document as their only route to finding lunch on a phone.

If you offer both formats, make the website page the main Menu link and label the download separately as a PDF. Keep the food information consistent. Two different versions with different prices or allergen details create a maintenance problem regardless of how attractive either one looks.

Open your menu on a phone held upright. Find a dish, read its description and price, then locate its allergen information. If you have to zoom in and drag sideways across each line, the layout is getting in the way. A single-column page that wraps text to the screen is usually easier to read.

Increase the browser's text size or zoom and repeat the task. Text should wrap without hiding prices or buttons. W3C's accessibility guidance calls this reflow, which means content fits the available width instead of making someone scroll sideways as well as down.

Some properly prepared PDFs can reflow too, but do not assume that yours will work in every customer's phone viewer. Test the actual file. Downloading a different app should not be your answer to someone who just wants to read the menu.

• Check that dish names, descriptions and prices stay together as text gets larger.
• Use clear sections for different menus, with serving days and times beside them.
• Make the menu easy to reach from the main navigation, without an account or an unnecessary pop-up.
• If you provide a PDF, label the link clearly so customers know it opens a document.

A screen reader is software that speaks or otherwise presents page content to someone who cannot read it visually. It needs real text and a sensible reading order. A photograph of a menu, or a PDF containing only scanned images, does not provide that by itself.

On a website page, use real headings for sections such as breakfast and drinks, not just larger bold text. Keep each price beside the correct dish in the reading order. Explain allergen symbols with words, and do not use colour alone to show which dishes contain an allergen.

For a PDF, use actual text and create a tagged document. Tags describe the structure, such as headings and lists, to assistive software. Check the reading order, especially in multi-column designs. Someone listening to the file should hear a dish and its price together, not unrelated text from the next column.

Being able to select text is a useful first check, not proof of accessibility. Ask whoever creates the menu to check headings and reading order, keyboard access to links, and reading with assistive software. W3C publishes separate techniques for PDF reading order and scanned text.

Google's own documentation lists both HTML, the format of ordinary website pages, and PDF as indexable file types. A PDF is not automatically invisible to search. Equally, a website page is not guaranteed a higher ranking just because it is a page.

Choose a page because it gives you a clear place for the current menu alongside your opening hours, location and booking link. Use a descriptive page title and link to it from your website. Write dish names and descriptions as text rather than relying on a picture of the print layout.

Keep a stable menu address where possible, and check for old downloadable menus that remain linked elsewhere. If a retired PDF is still bringing customers to out-of-date information, ask your web person how to direct those visitors to the current menu. Uploading a new file under a different name does not update links to the old one.

For non-prepacked food, such as meals served in a restaurant, businesses must tell customers when the food contains any of the 14 regulated allergens. Use actual recipes and supplier information to check each dish. The Food Standards Agency's guidance covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Food Standards Scotland provides guidance for Scottish businesses.

For these meals, official guidance allows information in writing or verbally, with clear written signposting telling customers how to obtain it when it is not given up front. It does not say every restaurant must put a full allergen table on its website. However, the FSA recommends written information supported by a conversation as best practice.

For your website, clear written information alongside each dish or through an obvious nearby link is a useful approach. The FSA's best-practice guidance recommends putting it on the main online menu or ideally no more than one click away. If you use symbols, provide a written key. Identify the relevant cereal or nut rather than relying only on a vague category.

An invitation to ask staff is not permission for staff to guess. Keep reliable ingredient records, train the people answering questions and assess cross-contamination, where an allergen accidentally gets into another food. A vegan label is not a guarantee that a dish is safe for someone with a milk or egg allergy.

If customers buy food online or by phone, allergen information must be available before they complete the purchase and again when the food is delivered. A note hidden after checkout is too late. The FSA says the information can be written or given orally, but recommends written information at both stages.

Put the information where someone can find it while choosing their food, including on third-party ordering platforms. At delivery, make clear which food each set of allergen information refers to. An allergen page on your website alone does not check that the correct information reaches the customer with the order.

Food packed at the place of sale before a customer chooses or orders it can fall under prepacked for direct sale rules, often called Natasha's Law. For food covered by those rules, labels need the food's name and a full ingredients list with allergens emphasised. A website menu does not replace the required label. Food packed only after an order is placed is treated differently.

The PPDS labelling changes have a distance-selling exception, but the before-purchase and delivery allergen duties still apply. Check the official guidance for the way you sell and package food, and ask your local authority's food safety team if you are unsure which rules apply. For Scotland, use Food Standards Scotland's guidance when checking your situation.

Choose one person to approve menu changes and one current record of dishes, ingredients and allergens. When a recipe, supplier or substitute ingredient changes, check the allergen information before serving the changed dish. A tidy menu with stale food information is not a safe menu.

Use the approved information to update the website, any PDF, ordering platforms and the menu customers see on the premises. Note which version is current and check the public result. A date can help you track a version, but it does not make inaccurate information correct.

• Check dish names, descriptions and prices against the menu actually being served.
• Update ingredient and allergen information whenever a recipe or supplier changes.
• State when breakfast, lunch, specials or an event menu is available.
• Remove links to retired menus and check printed QR codes still reach the current page.
• Recheck any dietary or free-from claims against the food and how it is prepared.

If your existing website can show a clear text menu, start there. You may only need to replace an image or download link with a page you can edit. Keep the PDF as an optional extra if it genuinely helps customers and you can maintain both copies.

If a PDF is your only practical option for now, improve it rather than leaving the current problems untouched. Use real text, clear structure and a readable layout, then test it on a phone and with assistive software. Keep allergen information available through the appropriate channels while you work on the format.

Before making a change, agree who will maintain the menu and how kitchen changes reach that person. Then repeat the customer's task on a phone: choose a dish, read its price, find its allergen information and reach the booking or ordering route. That is the check that matters after publication.