The UK Food Information Amendment, also known as ‘Natasha’s Law’, was introduced in October 2021 to protect allergy sufferers and give them confidence in the food they buy.
Natasha’s Law states that for all pre-packed for direct sale (PPDS), the name of the food and all ingredients must be listed on the packaging with allergenic ingredients emphasised (for example in bold, italics or a different colour). These changes apply to businesses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland since October 2021 and are also expected to come into force in Scotland in the near future. To find out more about whether Natasha’s Law applies to your food business, please see our blog post outlining details of the legislation.
With many moving parts involved in the food supply chain, many food business operators choose to automate the process to cut out mistakes that commonly occur when two or more systems try to integrate, avoiding the risk of human error that is common with manual data transfer between one stage of the food production process to the other.
Staff education and training
Staff training and education is crucial for adequate allergen management. Here are four key steps.
1. ‘Allergen Management’ should be made a function of your business in the same way Food Safety Management is.
Integrate allergen management with your existing HACCP plan. Your HACCP plan should identify potential allergen hazards that have the potential to occur at each step in the production process.
2. Make sure adequate training is given to empower all staff
Ensure all staff are fully aware of Natasha’s Law, whether they are involved in ordering ingredients, managing software, producing PPDS food or selling to consumers.
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Do they know what the 14 allergens are and how these are presented on an ingredient list?
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Do they know what prepacked for direct sale food means?
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Do they know where to go to or who to ask in the event of any questions either from themselves or from a customer?
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Everyone in your business has a responsibility to ensure the provision of correct allergen information.
3. Define exact roles and responsibilities.
Appoint an allergen champion who can provide more detailed information to consumers and train staff for allergen management. Although successful allergen management relies on all staff members taking responsibility, it can be useful to have an appointed individual with deeper understanding of the practices required to maintain a successful allergen management plan.
4. Consistently review
Continually review and adjust your processes to prevent avoidable incidents.
Using a software solution like Nutritics removes the risk of human error by automating the ingredient inputting process. Nutritics software means suppliers input the ingredients and further, any changes to ingredients are automatically captured in your software and flagged to you. In addition, Nutritics provides professional training courses with certification to ensure all personnel are enabled to fulfil their responsibilities and provide safe food with accurate information to their customers.