In October 2021, changes in food legislation will mean that some of the food you prepare on site will need more detailed labelling, but how do you know if your labels need changing? And what exactly needs to be displayed?
About Natasha’s Law
Natash’a Law is intended to help those living with food allergies, it is a new piece of legislation planned to come into effect in October, following the death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse in 2016, who suffered a fatal allergic reaction to a pre-made sandwich that lacked comprehensive allergen labelling.
What needs labelling?
Under Natasha’s Law, food pre-packed for Direct Sale will need to be labelled with a full list of ingredients, and any major allergens will need to be emphasised. Download our Natasha’s Law checklist here for a full list of what information needs to be displayed.
The FSA has also put together a handy online tool to help you identify whether the labelling changes apply to your food – Allergen and ingredients food labelling decision tool | Food Standards Agency
How do I access allergen information for products I’ve used?
With products changing so frequently, it is difficult to stay on top of the allergens in your ingredients. Many catering teams are relying on online platforms to manage their food specifications – such as Erudus. Erudus, is market-leading source of accurate & up-to-date allergy, nutritional & technical data – produced by the food industry. Read more about Erudus here.
Dunsters Farm are pleased to confirm that we are now able to offer our customers free access to the Erudus system, so you can easily find all the allergen & nutritional information for the products you buy from us – simply speak to our sales team to organise your team’s access to ERUDUS.
Can I use my current labels?
With the upcoming legislative changes, a lot more allergen information needs to be displayed. As such, your current labels may not be fit for purpose. Equally, it’s important the print is legible and customers can easily read the allergen content, so this also needs to be considered. Don’t forget to make space for any additional information you wish to include, such as barcodes or nutritional info.
Can I get some help with getting my labels up to scratch?
The easiest way to ensure your labelling is fully compliant with Natasha’s Law is to consider a food labelling platform, these software & print solutions ensure you can easily create your own labels, update them as needed but also rely on support & advice from an expert team.
We work with two recommended labelling software solutions, both of which can support your catering business to ensure your labelling is fully compliant – Matt85 & Planglow.
Matt 85
To help you become compliant we have teamed up with Retail Packaging Solutions (RPS) to offer you the Daymark Matt 85 Starter Pack, which includes Android Matt85 tablet, thermal printer, 2 label rolls of your choice, pre-sale product demonstration and design/telephone support.
Learn more about the solution here.
Planglow
Planglow offer a subscription-based label printing solution which works alongside a standard desktop printer & A4 sheet. You can access the application via any device – it enables you to create, amend, update and print your labels with ease and on the go, and is fully integrated with Erudus.
Learn more about Planglow’s LabelLogic solution here.
If you’re a Dunsters Farm Customer, you can join our virtual webinar in September (22nd) and learn all the basics of Natasha’s Law, what it means to your business and what ERUDUS can do to help you. Speak to our team about registering for the event.
Not a Dunsters Farm customer? Give our sales team a call and see if we can make your catering life a little easier, with extra support with product specifications, allergen advice as well as reliable, weekly deliveries – call 0161 763 7900 or email info@dunstersfarm.com
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USEFUL LINKS
Natasha’s Law – UK Food Labelling Resource – Homepage (natashas-law.com)
Packaging and labelling | Food Standards Agency
The Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019 (legislation.gov.uk)
