If you work in a business that deals with Pre-Packed for Direct Sale food (PPDS) you probably are already aware that as of October 2021 Natasha’s Law comes into force.
So, what is Natasha’s Law? How can you make sure your business is prepared for the new requirements? And how can we help you?
What is Natasha’s Law?
Natashas’s Law was introduced in 2019 following the tragic death of teenager Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who sadly suffered a fatal allergic reaction after eating a baguette bought from Pret a Manger. At the time it was not a legal requirement for food prepared on site of a business to require a label with allergen information, after Natasha’s Death her family and the public campaigned to ensure all pre-packed food on site for direct sale (PPDS) has clear ingredient and allergen labelling to prevent future incidents.
PPDS covers food that is partially or fully enclosed and cannot be altered prior to selection, this covers everything from ‘Grab and Go’ operations like coffee shops, bakeries and supermarkets as well as Takeaways or Fast-Food business’ who prepare food in advance of sale.
What are the new PPDS Food Labelling Requirements?
The information required by law on food labels will be changing as of October 2021, the new information required to be listed is:
- Name and quantity of the food
- Full ingredient list
- Must have any of the 14 declarable allergens clearly emphasised in bold or underlined, these are: celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, milk, lupin, molluscs, mustard, sesame, peanuts, soybeans, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, and nuts
The new Law requires the labelling on food packaging to be clear, not misleading and to be applied consistently across products to avoid confusion. It’s also worth considering how having labels on your products could impact the look and feel of product itself What shape/size will they be? Where will they go? Will they be on a sleeve or a conventional printed label? It is more important than ever to ensure you have a labelling solution in place as part of your supply chain in PPDS goods.
How can Reflex help to make sure your food packaging labels comply with Natasha’s Law?
With an unrivalled end-to end solution, we can assist with artwork amends, producing printed labels, lined board products, flexible packaging, and supplying over-labelling equipment and consumables, to ensure your food allergy labels and ingredients lists are compliant on pack.
- Self-adhesive labels
Whether you’re looking for plain labels to over-print or if you’d like them suppliedpre-printed format, we have the capability to match your requirements from our 8 dedicated label manufacturing sites.
Looking for the complete package? Whilst self-adhesive labels are a big part of Reflex, we currently have 19 sites across the UK supplying a variety of other packaging formats and services that go hand-in-hand.
- Artwork
With our in-house artwork team at Graphic Brands we can help provide a striking generic pack for you to over-label with your food allergy labels.
- Flexible packaging
Are your PPDS products supplied in flow-wrap or film on the reel , perhaps even stand-up pouches or bags and then over-labelled with the food allergy labels? We can assist with your flexible packaging requirements from our 4 dedicated flexibles manufacturing sites.
- Lined board products
If you are looking for generic sandwich skillets, wrap boxes or maybe even salad boxes that will then be over-labelled with the food allergy labels, we can assist from our dedicated Reflex Pack Plus lined board facility in Leicestershire.
- Labelling systems & consumables
Looking for labelling software, label printers, and consumables so that you can print the food allergy labels with ingredients lists on-site? Take a look at our dedicated labelling systems website, we’ll be sure to find a solution fit for your business.
Post-covid, the food to go market is predicted to be on the rise. The Lumina Intelligence UK Food To Go Market Report 2021 forecasts growth of 31.6% to £15.3bn in 2021 (talkingretail.com). So it’s kind of a big deal to ensure that every existing and new launch for food to go products has PPDS food labels that adhere to Natasha’s Law.
Further guidance
The Food Standards Agency have put together some really great guidance to ensure brands are compliant with the updated food labelling regulations, you can find this here.
We love nothing more than to offer support to businesses and brands, and it’s so important to us that this esstential law is adhered to, so we’ll do everything we can to help.
We’d love to hear from you and we have packaging experts on hand to help find the best solution for your products.
