Natasha's Law: What does it mean for your labelling?

In October 2021, Natasha’s Law becomes mandatory for all food that is prepared and prepacked for sale – whether this be in-store or online.

This regulation comes after a tragic incident where Natasha Ednan-Laperouse lost her life due to incorrect food allergen labelling on a Pret-a-Manger baguette. This could have been avoided had the UK Food Regulation (2014) stated that the information needed to include allergens for freshly made pre-packaged food.

PPDS or Prepacked Food for Direct Sale must include:

1. The name of the food.
2. A full ingredient list (including sub recipes) (must not be as a barcode)
3. Allergy ingredients that are emphasised in bold, italic or a different colour.

These labels need to be readable by those who are visual impaired and therefore include a minimum size for the height of characters to be equal to or greater than 1.2mm.

PPDS includes, but is not limited to:

• Fresh sandwiches & baked goods
• Packed food samples
• Food packaged in preparation for a market stall
• Butchers who pre-pack BBQ and other meat items for sale on the same premises
• Food pre-packaged for sale anywhere on the same premises eg, train stations, universities, hospitals etc.

It also applies to retail environments such as supermarkets where (not limited to):

• A pizza is freshly prepared on a counter and then packaged for the consumer to pay and take home.
• Fresh salad boxes.
• Cheese and meats that are pre-packaged from a counter and then placed on shelves for purchase by a consumer.

PPDS does not include food packaged at a customer’s request, food not in packaging or food packaged that can be altered without opening the packaging.

There are several handy tools online to help you determine whether your products are classed as PPDS, the Government has provided a labelling decision tool that you can access here.

Here at Dura-ID we can help fulfil all the above criteria with a print system and software to link to your existing database seamlessly:

• Thermal transfer printers for simple black printing on to a plain label
• Full colour systems (to also incorporate branding, traffic light systems and images where required)

For further information on Natasha’s law you can visit the below resources:

Natasha’s Law Information 

FAQs on Natasha’s Law