Natasha’s Law and What You Need to Do About It.
Natasha’s Law and What You Need to Do About It.
In this Natasha’s Law article – learn:
- What Natasha’s Law is
- See if it affects your business
- How the law affects you
- How to make your labels compliant
- Brother’s standalone label printer for ingredient labels
- Useful links
What is Natasha's Law?
In October 2021 a set of food labelling laws called Natasha’s Law comes into force.
The tragic death of 15 year old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse on a flight from Heathrow in 2016 highlighted the potentially fatal consequences of inadequate food labelling.
Natasha, who was allergic to sesame, stop breathing on the flight to Nice. Despite using her medication, she died from a severe allergic reaction.
Natasha had eaten a sandwich which failed to list sesame as an ingredient. The sandwich had sesame seeds baked into the dough.
The sandwich, made by Pret a Manger, had no specific allergy warnings and Natasha ate the sandwich, believing she was safe.
Whilst Natasha’s case was well publicised she is not alone. A handful of people die each year from food allergies and many more are made ill. Food allergies are estimated to affect one in eight children in the UK to some degree. Around 2% of adults have food allergies.
Natasha’s law passed through to law and new regulations were prepared in 2020.
Who Does Natasha's Law Effect?
The new regulations only apply to food known as ‘pre-packed for direct sale’ (PPDS), which is food packaged onsite by a food business or company or school canteen before a customer selects or orders it from the same premises.
Food prepared and manufactured off site already needs to include ingredients and allergy warnings but until October 2021, food made onsite and packaged didn’t.
If you make food on site and package it before selling it – Natasha’s law applies to your business.
How do the Food Labelling Changes Affect You?
If you make food that is pre-packed for direct sale, you need to list all the ingredients – paying particular attention to 14 specified allergens.
From 1st Oct 2021 PPDS food needs to be labelled. Foods that are made to order and non-packaged foods are not affected by the new regulations (most can’t be labelled anyway).
Allergens in the food as either an ingredient or a processing aid needs to be listed on the label.
From the food information regulations: “the mandatory information must be easily accessible, in a conspicuous place, easily visible and clearly legible. Information must be indelible (where appropriate for example on food labels where it needs to withstand handling). The information must not be hidden, obscured, detracted from or interrupted by other written or pictorial matter or any other intervening material.”
How to be Natasha's Law Labelling 'Compliant'
Printing ingredient labels at the time of manufacture presents a problem to many small food retailers such as sandwich shops and cafes.
Your labels need to be printed on-site at the time of packaging.
Fortunately, there is a solution. Using an inexpensive £250 label printer and pre-printed labels – you can quickly and easily label your food products with beautiful, eye-catching and professional branded labels.
Using labelling software like Seagull Scientific’s BarTender, or NiceLabel – you can build a library of label designs that can be printed on demand.
Your labels can include the best before date and all the required ingredient information.
Brother's Standalone Label Printer
One particularly practical solutions is Brother’s TD2020 printer.
It doesn’t need to be plugged into a computer to print labels.
You design the label designs on a PC, download the label designs to the printer and use the printer keypad to select what you want to print. It can even run off batteries.
Watch the video below and contact us to find out how you can try it.
Useful Links
Food Safety Agency: https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/allergen-labelling-for-prepacked-for-direct-sale-food
Natasha Allergy Research Foundation – https://www.narf.org.uk/natashaslaw
Updated 8 Feb 2021
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