Natasha’s Law Requirements

The new “Natasha’s Law” requires all pre-packaged foods prepared on site to be labelled with a full list of ingredients highlighting any of the 14 main allergens that are present in the ingredients.

Pre packaged foods include any item that you prepare on site and display on a shelf or chiller. This includes items such as sandwiches, salads, pasta pots, baguettes, cakes etc.

Here is the list of Information required on any food item you package on site –

• Product Description –  eg Cheese and Chutney Sandwich
• Use By Date
• Full list of ingredients – this includes listing all ingredients contained in the finished product (ie for the Cheese & Chutney Sandwich example you would need to add in the ingredients from the bread, chutney, cheese, spread and any other ingredients you add). Be careful to add all ingredients that may have been added to your finished product for example chicken marinated in buttermilk will contain milk
• Identification of any of the 14 main allergens – This should be identified as follows – flour (gluten), prawns (crustaceans), tahini (sesame), Cheese (milk) etc
• Nutritional Value – this is not currently a requirement however it may become so in the future. If the labelling system you plan to use includes the ability to detail the nutritional information on the label it may be a good idea to add this now rather than revisiting it at a later date.

Although this law does not legally come into effect until 1^st Oct 2021, we recommend you start planning how you will implement this as soon as possible.

The easiest way of noting any of the 14 allergens contained in your food is to highlight them in BOLD on your ingredients list.  Add a clause to your label stating “Allergens are noted in BOLD”.