Chapter Five:

Tips for Ensuring Natasha’s Law Compliance

With Natasha’s Law in effect, you need to consider how you are going to continue to comply with the allergen labelling laws with all new food products you introduce to your business. Preparation is key, and we’ve put together a list of tips to help.

1. Keep Your Products Up to Date

It’s likely that you’ll add new items to your menu on a semi-regular basis, so it’s important that you ensure the creation of ingredients lists before you stock them on your shelves. Prepare your labels prior to launching them to your customers, so you’re not panicking at the last minute when it comes to packaging.

Reward-It offers helpful software with pre-loaded food label templates so you can easily import and format ingredients that contain allergens.

2. Use an All-In-One Solution

It can be tricky to know if you’re following the legislation, so investing in an all-in-one allergen label bundle can be the answer to all your questions.

With Reward-It’s Natasha’s Law bundle, built specifically to be compliant with the legislation, you can feel assured that your printer does exactly what you need it to. You can quickly and easily print the ingredients and any necessary allergy advice on food labels for your product packaging without any concerns for compliance.

You can also add new labels or reprint easily with the PriceTag software included in the bundle. To make this easier for you, our in-house experts have created and pre-loaded a selection of templates that are designed for use with Natasha’s Law legislation. All you need to do is import your ingredients lists and send them to print using the food label machine.

3. Train New Staff

As you take on new staff, it’s important that their initial training includes all the information they need to know about Natasha’s Law, even if they won’t be handling the packaging of products.

Holidays, job vacancies, and other absences may mean staff are required to fill other roles that they may not usually, and a lack of training may result in mistakes being made. Any non-compliance can lead to legal repercussions, such as fines, as well as reputational damage – and the risk of one of your customers suffering from ill health as a direct result of incorrect labelling.

Training your staff on allergen labelling laws upon the start of their employment with you will reduce the risk of non-compliance.

4. Don’t Forget Why

In the midst of the preparation for Natasha’s Law, the messaging and reasoning of the legislation coming into force can get lost. It’s important to remember that this law was born from the untimely death of teenager Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, and the thousands like her who have suffered after eating incorrectly labelled foods that contain allergens.

You never know who may come into your shop and what allergens they have, and that means you don’t know the effect that incorrectly labelled PPDS foods could have on them. Having a labelling solution in place to identify and display allergens can be a relief for many customers, and potentially lifesaving for others.