What can we do?

With any new legislation such as Natasha’s Law, caterers and business alike should be taking steps to ensure they are prepared well in advance. There are a number of options to help and support businesses achieve compliance with the new legislation. One example is the use of a catering software management tool such as Civica Saffron which automatically identifies allergen information. They can take allergen information directly from suppliers and produce an accurate ingredients list. This can then be exported and easily shared with your labelling partner. However not all businesses’ have access to software and a more manual approach is necessary.

Preparation is key; with less than 6-months left to go we suggest you put into action any plans for your business. A good first step is to begin to track and consolidate recipes with clear and correct ingredient lists. The objective is to show an accurate representation of the food you are preparing on site for consumers. By having a list of recipes and ingredients you frequently use it is then easier to determine the allergens for such recipes.

Working closely with the residential care sector we recognise the importance of easy access and clarity to nutritional and allergen data. We recommend for each recipe and meal provided, an operator should have to hand a printed copy of the recipe detailing all key allergen data and the broad nutritional values. This, working alongside the residents care plan would be a minimum requirement for the CQC.

Over the coming weeks and months we will be identifying the main challenges and questions this legislation raises and working closely with our supplier base to help your business comply with these laws. We hope to answer many important questions which have been raised such as. “What does this mean for food which is not ‘sold’ such as a hospital patient meal or free school meals?”. This is just one of many questions we will try to answer with the information provided.

If your business needs help with managing allergens please get in touch.