What is “Natasha’s Law?”
“Natasha’s Law” comes into force on 1st October 2021, and covers labelling requirements for foods that are prepared and packed on the same premises from which they are sold. For example, a packaged sandwich, or a salad made by staff earlier in the day and placed on a shelf for purchase.
Any food which is pre-packed directly for sale will now be required to have labelling which provides information on the full ingredients or the allergens contained.
The legislation was drafted in response to the death of teenager Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died following an allergic reaction to a take-away sandwich.
Does Natasha’s Law Affect Me?
According to the new rules, any food that is pre-packed for direct sale (so-called PPDS food) will have to have the following information clearly displayed:
- The name of the food
- A full list of ingredients – these have to be listed in weight order (heaviest first)
- Any allergens in the product must be emphasised (usually in bold type) in the ingredient list. There are currently 14 prescribed allergens which must be stated even if they are a component of another ingredient.
This change in the law would have affected many businesses in food service anyway. However, the Covid crisis has driven many outlets to pre-package food that would have been sold without packaging. This pre-packaging means that Natasha’s Law applies and the food must be labelled correctly.
We believe this law will not only affect caterers. It will create a rise in demand for detailed product specification, which will have a knock-on effect on food manufacturers and suppliers.
The Food Standards Agency has provided a tool to help you establish whether the changes apply to your business and what you need to do. You can access it here.
Natasha’s Law and Food Labelling
Labels will be front and centre of the brand to the customer, and will need more attention than perhaps they have had historically. However, labels are only as accurate as the people that produce them. You will need confidence that your ingredient and allergen data is a true reflection of the ingredients used, and there have no ad hoc changes. For example, if you use mayonnaise in a sandwich, and one day somebody uses Heinz instead of Hellmans, the ingredients may be different, and your labelling must reflect the change.
As a response to this, you might simplify a recipe to get a cleaner looking ingredient deck for the label. For example, a bacon sandwich with ketchup might become a bacon sandwich where the ketchup is now supplied separately in a sachet so that the ketchup ingredients and allergens do not have to be listed on the sandwich pack.
Changes to Systems
At Delicious By Design we are already planning for the changes that Natasha’s Law will bring. We are reviewing our policies and practices, and looking at how it will affect our customers and us.
Now is a great time to be putting the systems and training in place so that your business is ready for Natasha’s Law on 1st October. This will include solutions to help with ingredient and allergen tracking, and product labelling. These systems will need to be set up and people trained. This is also true for those businesses closed by current Covid-19 restrictions; make the changes now so your business re-opens ready for Natasha’s Law.
You may have a food data system already, which helps you with recipes, nutritionals, allergens, and labelling. However, if you don’t have one, or if you have one but it doesn’t really work for you, I’d recommend you look at Kafoodle.
We’ve been working with Kafoodle for over two years now. We’re huge fans of Kafoodle’s platform. We believe it’s an important tool for any foodservice business looking to address Natasha’s Law. We love how it easy it is for chefs and caterers to use, and how it helps with ingredients, allergens, labelling, and cost management in the foodservice industry.
Find Out More
If you need further guidance on how Natasha’s Law might impact you, we’d be happy to help where we can. You can contact us here.
If you want to find out more about how we will be working with Kafoodle to help our clients, and see how our very own Steve Love reacted when he first used Kafoodle, you can do that here.
~ Louise
