Natasha's Law explained: PPDS allergen labelling for pubs, cafés and restaurants

What Natasha's Law actually requires

Since 1 October 2021, any food that is prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) must be labelled with:

1. the name of the food, and
2. a full ingredients list, with any of the 14 allergens emphasised within it.

The rule applies across the UK. England's version is in the Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations, Wales and Northern Ireland have equivalent regulations, and Scotland made its own through the Food Information (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021. All came into force on the same day, and your local authority enforces them.

The name comes from Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died after eating a baguette containing sesame that wasn't labelled. Before the change, food made and wrapped on the same premises didn't need an ingredients list. That loophole is what the law closed.

What counts as PPDS

PPDS is food that is packaged at the same place it's offered or sold to consumers, and is in that packaging before the customer orders or selects it. Three tests, all of which must be true:

• Packed by you (your business, not a supplier)
• On the same premises it's sold from (including a market stall or van run by the same business)
• Before the customer chooses it

The FSA's own examples include:

• sandwiches and bakery products packed on site before a customer selects them
• fast food packed before it's ordered, such as a burger wrapped and waiting under a heat lamp
• pizzas, rotisserie chicken, salads and pasta pots prepackaged on site
• burgers and sausages prepackaged by a butcher on the premises
• free samples of cookies that were packed on site

Food Standards Scotland adds wrapped deli counter goods like cheese and meats, and boxed salads put on a chilled shelf before sale.

What isn't PPDS

The packed-by-another-business row catches people out the other way. If you buy in pre-wrapped flapjacks from a bakery down the road and sell them, they're prepacked food, not PPDS, and they must already carry a full label.

Examples from real venues

A café with a grab-and-go fridge

A 6-person café makes 30 sandwiches and a dozen salad pots between 7 and 9am, wraps them, and puts them in the fridge by the till. All of it is PPDS. Each one needs a label with the name and full ingredients, allergens emphasised. Tuna mayo on granary isn't enough: the label must list the bread's ingredients, the mayonnaise's ingredients (egg, mustard), the tuna (fish) and any butter or spread (milk).

The same café also makes paninis to order. Those aren't PPDS, because they're made after the customer orders. Allergen information still has to be available for them.

A pub with pre-wrapped bar snacks and a Sunday carvery

A pub bakes sausage rolls in the morning and wraps them in paper bags on the bar for walk-in trade. PPDS, so they need labels. The Sunday carvery is plated in front of the customer: not PPDS. The bags of crisps behind the bar were packed by the manufacturer: not PPDS, and already labelled.

A restaurant with a takeaway menu

A restaurant packs takeaway dishes after the order comes in by phone or app. Not PPDS, and because it's distance selling the customer needs allergen information before they pay and again when the food arrives. If the restaurant also pre-packs pots of its house chutney to sell at the door, the chutney is PPDS and needs a full label.

A hotel breakfast and a grab bag

A hotel offers a "breakfast to go" bag packed the night before for early check-outs. PPDS. Every item in it made and packed on site needs labelling.

What the label needs to look like

• Name of the food. Clear enough to tell people what it is: "Ham and mustard sandwich on white bloomer", not "Ham sarnie".
• Ingredients list in full, including the ingredients of compound ingredients like mayonnaise, pesto or bread.
• Allergens emphasised within the list. Food Standards Scotland gives bold, underlining or a different text colour as examples. Name the specific cereal or nut, e.g. wheat, walnuts.

A sample label for a café sandwich might read:

Egg mayonnaise and cress sandwich on malted bread Ingredients: Malted bread (wheat flour, water, malted barley flour, yeast, salt, rapeseed oil, soya flour), free-range egg, mayonnaise (rapeseed oil, water, egg yolk, spirit vinegar, sugar, salt, mustard seed), cress.

That's illustrative only. Your label must come from your actual recipe and the actual products you buy, and those ingredients lists change when suppliers change.

Getting it right day to day

The hard part isn't printing labels. It's keeping them accurate.

1. Build a recipe card for every PPDS product, with the full ingredients list for each component copied from the supplier's label or specification.
2. Lock your suppliers where you can. Every substitution is a potential label change.
3. Check deliveries for substitutions and have a rule: if the product is different, the label is checked before anything is packed.
4. Print from a master, not handwritten labels at 7am.
5. Train everyone who packs food, including weekend and agency staff. The FSA says staff must receive allergen training.
6. Keep records of your recipes and the versions of your labels, so you can show what was on sale and when.
7. Review at every menu change.

Mistakes to avoid

• Assuming made-to-order food is exempt from allergen information. It's exempt from the PPDS label, not from telling customers.
• Labelling the sandwich filling but not the bread.
• Using "may contain nuts" on everything instead of a proper ingredients list.
• Writing "contains gluten" instead of naming the cereal.
• Forgetting free samples and staff-packed gift items at Christmas.

Don't forget the food that isn't PPDS

Natasha's Law gets the headlines, but most of what a pub or restaurant sells is non-prepacked: plated meals, drinks, food served over the counter. The rules for those didn't change in 2021, and they still matter:

• You must supply allergen information for every item that contains any of the 14 allergens.
• You can give it verbally, but there must be a clearly visible written notice telling customers how to get it.
• The FSA's best practice guidance for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, published in February 2025, recommends written allergen information that's easy to find, plus a conversation, and asking every customer whether they have any allergen requirements. It's best practice rather than law, but it's what an officer will compare you against.

An allergen matrix is one practical way to keep the written side under control.

PPDS checklist

• List every product you pack on site before it's ordered, including samples, gift items and grab bags
• Recipe card with full ingredients for each, including compound ingredients
• Labels show name of food and full ingredients, allergens emphasised
• Specific cereals and nuts named
• Deliveries checked for substitutions before packing
• Everyone who packs food trained on labelling and allergens
• Labels reviewed at every menu or supplier change
• Allergen information available for everything that isn't PPDS

Where ShiftComplete fits

ShiftComplete doesn't print PPDS labels. What it does is hold your allergen information for every menu item against the 14 UK allergens, grouped by course and searchable by front-of-house staff from the floor, with editing restricted to managers. That makes it easier to answer the made-to-order questions that sit alongside PPDS, and to spot when a recipe change needs a label change too. Pair it with a daily checklist item such as "PPDS labels checked against today's deliveries", and every tick is named and timestamped. See our allergen matrix template for a free starting point.