Natasha's Law - Are You Ready?

The UK Food Information Amendment, also known as Natasha’s Law, is being introduced to protect food allergy sufferers and give them confidence in the food they buy.

From October 2021, all prepacked food for direct sale (food that is packaged at the same place it is offered for sale to consumers and is packaged before it is ordered or selected), must be labelled with a full list of ingredients. For example, if you prepare a salad or sandwich in the morning, wrap and place it in a Grab & Go Fridge to sell later in the day, this would be classed as Pre-packed for Direct Sale (PPDS).

This amendment was brought about thanks to the actions of a lobbying group led by the parents of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, the teenager who sadly died after suffering an allergic reaction to an undeclared ingredient in a prepacked meal. Due to their efforts, the government confirmed that stronger laws would be implemented to protect those with food allergies.

In the UK, an estimated 2 million people are living with a diagnosed food allergy

Under the new rules, food businesses must clearly display two essential pieces of information on all PPDS food. This includes 1. the name of the food and 2. a full ingredients list, with allergenic ingredients emphasised for example in bold, italics or a different colour.

Natasha’s Law requires all allergens to be highlighted in the ingredients list, with 14 allergens that must be highlighted. These are:

• Celery (including Celeriac)
• Cereals containing Gluten (including Wheat, Rye, Barley and Oats)
• Crustaceans (i.e Shellfish including Prawn, Crab, Shrimp and Lobster)
• Eggs
• Fish
• Lupins
• Milk (including Lactose Products)
• Molluscs (including Squid, Mussels, Cockles and Snails)
• Mustard
• Nuts (specifically Tree Nuts)
• Peanuts
• Sesame (Tahini)
• Soya (Soy and Soybean)
• Sulphur Dioxide or Sulphites (at levels above 10mg per kilogram or per litre)

Sciamed has a wide variety of plain and pre-printed labels, desktop and industrial label printers and recommends using BarTender Professional Label Design Software to create fast, simple and effective labels.

BarTender Professional has the ability to create and design labels that make complying with the new regulations easy. BarTender provides an intuitive, easy-to-use label template that helps meet the new food labelling requirements and produce consistent, compliant labels.

The BarTender Allergen label template is completely configurable and features:

• Automated emphasis & formatting of allergens in your ingredient list.
• Configurable list of allergens, allowing easy modification should the regulation be updated or you need to comply with similar geographic regulations.
• Simple design that allows you to design labels to match your company's marketing & production needs.

For more information, please call 01975 564111 or email sales@sciamed.co.uk