Skip to main content
Blog Post

Natasha’s Law: Is your business prepared?

Ingredients

As the food industry gears up to comply with Natasha’s Law, we look at how pre ordering apps can provide vital consumer safety information.

The UK Food Information Amendment 2019, also known as Natasha’s Law, comes into effect from the 1st October 2021. It requires F&B businesses to provide full ingredient lists and allergen labelling on all foods pre-packaged for direct sale on the premises.

With this in mind, we take a look at how you can not only effectively comply with the regulations, but also make the process less confusing for your customers.

Allergen management is now treated just like any other risk management procedure in our industry. This means a full review of all processes must be carried out, alongside risk assessment, mitigation and training for all employees. Allergen and nutritional content must then be clearly displayed on each pre-packaged item of food.

But, does this go far enough? Paper labels can be misprinted, obscured or covered over, diluting or even hiding the crucial information.

An extra helping of reassurance

By using a pre order app or self-ordering kiosk, you can apply an additional layer of allergen information for your customer.

Pre order apps require diners to download a smartphone application to their chosen device. They can then access real-time menus and make their selections simply and securely.

Throughout the ordering process, each menu item flags up an allergen message numerous times: once at selection, twice when the order has gone to basket, and additionally at check out. The kitchen will then receive confirmation of the allergen information for every customer’s unique order.

Going one step further

With the food prepared safe in the knowledge it has met the customer’s requirements, we continue the compliance by enabling the temperature of our Pre Order Pods to be individually set. Our team monitors and records the temperature and time of every order delivered by the kitchen/collected by the customer, guaranteeing food safety at each stage. Chilled food can be kept between 2°C and 4°C, and hot food at a minimum of 65°C, ensuring even high-risk meals are stored correctly.

Complete control

Offering further autonomy to the catering and kitchen teams, our remote management safety system allows lockers to be turned on/off and opened remotely from a phone or laptop. Temperatures can be increased/decreased at the touch of a button, and helpful warning notifications are set throughout each level of the process. Specific timings to automatically turn the pods on and off are set depending on your site’s specific operating hours. And our support team adds an extra level of reassurance with 24/7 monitoring.

Pre Order Pods, integrated with a pre order app, can seamlessly prepare your business for Natasha’s Law, while offering a raft of other safety benefits for both your kitchen and customer. Get in touch with our team to find out more.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels