Tip of the Week
Last week Natasha’s Law, a new Allergen labelling law, was enacted by Parliament. This law follows UK wide consultation on allergen labelling following the tragic death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse from an allergic reaction after eating an unlabelled baguette from Pret a Manger in 2016.
The new legislation requires any foods that are pre-packaged on site for direct sale to be labelled with a full list of ingredients and allergens highlighted in bold. This legislation applies from October 2021.
This will require you to list all ingredients and allergens on the labels of any sandwiches, wraps, salad pots, cakes etc that you make on site and pre-pack prior to selling from your premises. This law only applies to pre-packaged food and not food made to order. The law will be mandatory in October 2021 which gives us more time to organise this labelling. However, many food businesses have already taken steps to improve labelling and everyone is being urged by the Food Standards Agency to make these changes as soon as they can, ahead of the implementation date. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you plan to implement full ingredient listing on any pre-packaged foods as soon as possible to protect your customers and business. Once a law is announced, there is an implicit expectation to comply without waiting until the mandatory implementation date.
Alert
Byrons Restaurants were in the news last week regarding the ongoing inquest into the death of a teenager who was allergic to dairy and ate a chicken burger he didn’t know contained buttermilk.
When compiling ingredients lists for your labels, take great care to ensure the information is 100% accurate. Check all manufacturers ingredients lists for all foods contained in your final product including marinades, etc.
Weekly Food Fact
A dairy allergy can be life threatening as it can cause anaphylaxis which is a reaction that narrows the airways and impedes breathing. Milk is one of the most common food allergies and is present in many foods. There are the obvious dairy products, cheese, butter etc but care needs to be taken as milk protein is often added to other foods like processed meats, bread and biscuits.
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