Is your business prepared for Natasha’s Law?
Around two million people are thought to live with a food allergy in the UK. While the fatalities for anaphylaxis are low in the UK (less than 10 per year), it still causes concern for the millions of others who are restricted with what they can eat. Natasha’s Law was introduced by Natasha Ednan-Laperouse’s story, a 15-year-old girl who tragically went into cardiac arrest on a flight after buying a Pret a Manger baguette at Heathrow Airport in 2016.
Under current guidelines, restaurants, takeaways and other food hospitality venues are only required to inform customers if their food contains any of the 14 most dangerous allergens, including milk, peanuts and eggs. According to the UK’s Food Regulations 2014, food that is not pre-packaged and handmade onsite does not require individual labels.
How does this affect businesses?
As of October 2021, all pre-packaged foods for direct sale (PPDS) must display a label showing the full ingredients list as well as potential allergens. Incorrectly or unlabelled foods for sale could result in sanctions for your business.
In response to Natasha’s Law, it is vital that all packaged foods prepared either on or offsite display possibilities of cross contamination. Effectively, it will help to improve the food hospitality sector as more people will be able to confidently purchase food knowing exactly what they are consuming.
For this reason, access to a label printer in your business is the simplest way to ensure that all freshly prepared packaged food complies with the new legislation.
● Businesses will need to label products prepared and packaged on site with a full ingredients list and allergen information
● Packaged sandwiches, salads, and other items made by staff earlier in the day and placed on a shelf for purchase should be labelled
● Food that’s not in packaging, or is packed after being ordered by the customer, doesn’t need to be labelled (allergen information needs to be given, but the customer can be told this)
The new law will come into force in October 2021.
Features of the
Star TSP654IISK Thermal Printer perect for Natasha's Law
Compact, direct thermal linerless label printer for MAXStick repositionable labels
80mm paper width (40mm and 58mm with supplied paper guides)
Cutter and Paper Taken Sensor for effective order management
Connectivity: USB, Ethernet LAN and Hi X Connect. Separate Bluetooth model available
Buzzer and cash drawer support
Connects to iOS, Android and Windows tablets and mobile devices
Star CloudPRNT for remote label printing from a central server
What is Natasha's Law and How Does it Affect Businesses?
Is your business prepared for Natasha’s Law?
Around two million people are thought to live with a food allergy in the UK. While the fatalities for anaphylaxis are low in the UK (less than 10 per year), it still causes concern for the millions of others who are restricted with what they can eat. Natasha’s Law was introduced by Natasha Ednan-Laperouse’s story, a 15-year-old girl who tragically went into cardiac arrest on a flight after buying a Pret a Manger baguette at Heathrow Airport in 2016.
Under current guidelines, restaurants, takeaways and other food hospitality venues are only required to inform customers if their food contains any of the 14 most dangerous allergens, including milk, peanuts and eggs. According to the UK’s Food Regulations 2014, food that is not pre-packaged and handmade onsite does not require individual labels.
How does this affect businesses?
As of October 2021, all pre-packaged foods for direct sale (PPDS) must display a label showing the full ingredients list as well as potential allergens. Incorrectly or unlabelled foods for sale could result in sanctions for your business.
In response to Natasha’s Law, it is vital that all packaged foods prepared either on or offsite display possibilities of cross contamination. Effectively, it will help to improve the food hospitality sector as more people will be able to confidently purchase food knowing exactly what they are consuming.
For this reason, access to a label printer in your business is the simplest way to ensure that all freshly prepared packaged food complies with the new legislation.
Have you considered vital changes to adhere to this new law ?
Fortunately, here at Barcodfe Technologies we are proud to work with a company such as Star Micronics. Star offers a wide range of reliable direct thermal food label printers for high resolution printing.
Ink Printers or Thermal Printers?
Depending on the size of your business, there is a significant difference between using an ink/toner label printer and a thermal printer. Ink/toner printers are cost effective to companies that produce a large quantity of labels for stock of one product. Thermal printing is much more accessible and cost-effective for printing a smaller quantity of labels that may need to be adjusted for different products of smaller stock levels.
If you are a smaller business, have you considered a thermal printer for labelling? They are a much more affordable alternative as the printer does not require any ink, only a roll of labels. This cuts the cost of recurrent spending on ink or toner.
One of our top picks for smaller businesses are Star’s SM-L200 and SM-L300 printers. They provide 2” and 3” affordable and versatile food labelling solutions with traditional or liner-free labels (SM-L300). They are Bluetooth compatible, so mobile food hospitality businesses have the accessibility of printing on-the-go. Both offer in-vehicle charging, or an optional desktop charging cradle.
Alternatively, Star offers TSP700II 3” and TSP800II 4” desktop label printers which can be integrated into current systems or simply connected to mobile devices and tablets. Compact and fast, they print food labels with clear text and barcodes and are extremely simple to use, just drop in the label roll and start printing.
Call us today or email sales@barcode-uk.com or Tel: 01442 872232