What is Natasha’s Law?
The UK Food Information Amendment, more commonly known as Natasha’s Law, requires food businesses to include ingredient lists and clear labelling on pre-packaged food for direct sale (PPDS). Natasha's Law aims to enhance transparency, improve food safety, and provide greater protection for consumers, especially those with food allergies and intolerances.
The law came into action on 1st October 2021 to protect allergy sufferers and give them confidence in the food they buy, introduced in response to Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who suffered a fatal allergic reaction to an undeclared allergen.
The law aims to empower consumers with the information they need from PPDS food labelling to make informed choices about the food they purchase, promoting a safer and more inclusive food environment.
What is PPDS food?
Natasha’s Law affects any business that produces PPDS (Pre-packaged for direct sale) food.
PPDS is food which is packaged at the same place it is sold and is in the packaging before it is ordered by a customer.
PPDS foods must display the name of the food and a full ingredients list with allergen ingredients in bold, CAPITALS, or underlined.
Examples of PPDS food includes sandwiches, salads, pasta pots, and bakery products that are made and packaged on-site for immediate consumption.
Natasha's law allergens list
Natasha's Law, applicable in the United Kingdom, requires clear and comprehensive allergen labelling in hospitality for prepackaged food for direct sale (PPDS). The allergens are:
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Cereals containing gluten (e.g. wheat, rye, barley)
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Crustaceans (e.g. lobsters, crabs, prawns)
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Eggs
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Fish
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Peanuts
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Soybeans
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Milk (including all lactose)
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Nuts (e.g. almonds, cashews, pecans)
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Celery
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Mustard
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Sesame seeds
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Sulphur dioxide and sulphites (at concentrations of more than 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/L)
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Lupin (seeds and flour)
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Mollusks (e.g. clams, oysters, mussels)
Environmental health officers will check how your allergens are appropriately separated. To pass your EHO check, you'll need to label these correctly and have separate areas/utensils for certain allergens such as nuts.
At Trail, we’ve turned this legal requirement into a handy allergen separation checklist that can help ensure that you achieve compliance with ease. Or you can get straight into running your food operations safely with a free trial.
Natasha’s Law checklist
It’s a legal requirement for UK businesses to comply with Natasha’s Law. Compliance should form part of your food safety management system, and involves several key steps to ensure that your business meets the requirements for PPDS food. Here’s a practical checklist you can use to achieve compliance:
1. Audit your menu
Assess your menu to better understand which foods are classified as PPDS (pre-packed for direct sale). Then make sure these items are always labelled, in compliance with Food Standards Agency regulations.
2. Communicate with your suppliers
Make sure you speak to your suppliers—they need to provide you with all the ingredient and allergen information in their products.
3. Train teams
Inform your teams about Natasha’s Law and any business changes. Provide ongoing allergen training to ensure compliance never slips and your customers always feel safe.
4. Ensure all PPDS foods have allergen labels
This is the most important step in the checklist. Ensure that for any PPDS, you produce pre-printed labels that include a list of the present allergens.
5. Optimise food safety processes
Use labelling software, like Nutritics, to automate creating and printing food labels. Food safety checklists, like Trail, can also help teams stay compliant.
How does Natasha’s Law impact bakeries and sandwich shops?
With bakeries and sandwich shops often selling pre-packaged food on site, this law is one that will definitely affect your business.
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Pre-wrapped food – any sandwich, salad pot, cake or food item that’s been made up in the morning and put on a display shelf must carry a physical label showing the name, complete list of ingredients and allergen list in bold
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Everyone is affected – with no small-business exemptions in place, this law impacts every single business selling pre-packaged food, including local bakers, small sandwich shops and market stalls
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Made-to-order food – food packaged or made up after a customer requests it, like a sandwich made fresh to order, isn’t currently impacted by this law. These items do not need full package labels. Allergen details must always be available and provided upon request though.
Take a look at our bakery management app to make sure you execute the plan to stay compliant.
How Trail can help
With Trail, it’s easy to implement measures to keep allergens separate, and report any allergic reactions if they arise.
Communicates changes clearly to teams
Digital checklists ensure that everyone knows what to do and when to do it. Especially important when new regulations come into place. Communicate clearly to your teams to make sure everyone is following the new labelling procedures correctly.
Gets you organised
Remove the guesswork and lengthy paperwork. Allergen task templates and smart forms for ingredient checks as well as food safety checklists help you stay compliant.
Helps avoid incidents
Trail alerts your teams to take corrective action as soon as a problem is detected. Your teams can then record evidence to show the problem has been fixed, protecting your business against legal action.
Gives you performance insights
Alerts and notifications give you the confidence that new procedures are being followed correctly, even when you're not on site. With time-stamped records, you’ll always be ready to ace your food hygiene rating when it comes to your EHO inspection. Without the added stress.
Discover more ways Trail can help you level up your compliance. Book a demo today.
