This article has been brought to you by Slough Borough Council's Associate Director and Education & Inclusion, Johnny Kyriacou on behalf of Slough Borough Council's Senior H&S Adviser Vicki Swift. This is for the attention of all schools.
From the 1st October 2021 food businesses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will need to comply with new allergen labelling requirements provided by The Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019 – more commonly known as ‘Natasha’s Law’.
Natasha’s Law has been introduced following the tragic death of teenager Natasha Ednan-Laperouse who died after suffering an allergic reaction having eaten a Pret A Manger baguette which at the time did not require allergen labelling.
The amended Regulations aim to protect allergy sufferers and make it easier for them to make clear, safe choices when buying food by requiring businesses to provide full ingredient and allergen labelling on foods which are pre-packed for direct sale.
What is Changing?
From the 1st October 2021 if you are a food business that produces ‘pre-packed food for direct sale’ you will be required to label it with the name of the food and a full ingredients list, with any allergenic ingredients emphasised within the list.
It is recommended that if children are bringing in ingredients from home for a cooking lesson, whilst they do not need to be labelled as this falls outside of Natasha’s Law, it is still important that the children are aware of the allergens present in the food/ingredients that they are bringing in. Hence it is recommended that they bring in the original packaging for the food, as allergen information would be present on that. This is particularly important if the food is going to be shared after the cooking activity.
Teachers should also be aware of any students that are allergy sufferers and identify cross contamination issues during lessons. Thorough cleaning afterwards is also an important factor. Again, these are all aspects of preparing food that could be incorporated into the children’s learning. If you do have any children in your school that has an allergy, please ensure a risk assessment is in place.
What is ‘Pre-Packed for Direct Sale’?
Food which is pre-packed for direct sale (PPDS) is food that is packaged at the same place it is offered or sold to the customer and is in this packaging before it is ordered or selected. Examples of food which are PPDS include:
- Sandwiches which are packed on site before a consumer selects or orders them
- Fast food packed before it is ordered
- Pizzas, rotisserie chicken, salad pots and pasta pots which have been pre-packed on site ready for sale
- Items which have been made on the same site as they are being sold and which cannot be altered without opening the packaging
What do you need to do?
You need to check if your products require PPDS labelling and ensure you know what you need to do to comply with Natasha’s Law. Remember the changes came into effect on the 1st October 2021. The Food Standards Agency have a dedicated section on their website about this topic and it is strongly recommended that you visit the site to ensure you fully understand the changes. The PPDS Hub can be found here.
The Food Standards Agency has also produced an extremely useful leaflet which is attached to this email and includes a helpful flow diagram which will assist you in determining what actions you need to take to ensure you are compliant with the new requirements.
You also need to remember that as well as the changes to the way some foods need to be labelled, the control of allergenic ingredients when preparing food still always needs to be managed. Cherwell District Council currently offer the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health’s (CIEH) ‘Serving the allergic and food intolerant customer’ online training course and more information about this can be found here.
The Food Standards Agency also offer an online allergy and intolerance training course which can be found here.
The Greater Gwent Food Group in Wales, with support from Lancashire Trading Standards, Trading Standards Wales and the Food Standards Agency have created an excellent multilingual allergen resource site. A useful leaflet from the site is attached for your information in English, and it is also available in Welsh, Bengali, Cantonese, Kurdish, Punjabi, Turkish and Urdu. You can access the full resource pack (which is available in all the aforementioned languages) here.
Compliance
Enforcement of the amended Regulations primarily falls to the Trading Standards team at Slough Borough Council. However, compliance with the Regulations will form part of your food hygiene inspection which is undertaken by the Food and Safety at Slough Borough Council . As such, you may receive contact from either team about Natasha’s Law.
If you need any further advice please contact The Trading Standards Team at Slough Borough Council on 01753 475111.