Pelican’s in-house software development team have spent the last few months modifying the Pi system, to ensure that hospitality and catering operators using the system are in a position to easily comply with Natasha’s Law – and to better protect customers with allergies. The new legislation is an important step forward in helping those who live with food allergies.
What is required
Effective from October 1, 2021, the new law requires suppliers of PPDS food – prepacked for direct sale – to ensure the packaging of that food has a clear list of ingredients and allergens on it. The aim is to give those with allergies the opportunity to identify and avoid, any pre-prepared foods that may contain potentially harmful ingredients.
The change aims to catch the details of all individual ingredients in complex food items. So a herb such as oregano, for example, would be listed simply as oregano; but every basic ingredient in a sauce or dressing must be identified. So individual ingredients used to create sauces such as mayonnaise, and cooked items such as bread, scotch egg covering or sausage, need to be listed in order of their relative volume in the dish.
Natasha’s Law is named after Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died aged 15 in 2016 after suffering an allergic reaction to ingredients in a sandwich shop wrapped baguette. The prepacked food was purchased from a Pret a Manger outlet at Heathrow airport, and Natasha became ill on a flight. Natasha’s parents Tanya and Nadim Ednan-Laperouse campaigned for better labelling, to prevent a similar incident from occurring in the future.
How Pi helps
Pi is an award-winning, cloud-based system that provides full visibility, control and a consistent picture of your catering operation and its impact on finances, at any time, without any manual input. The system includes lots of modules that help operators to save valuable time and resources.
Pi already contained a menu engineering module, called Piranha, and many of the additions to support clients selling PPDS products have been made within this part of the system.
With Pi, it is possible to enter PPDS recipes into the system, which will then work out costs, and provide allergen and nutrition information. Similarly, if a new recipe is built within Pi, then it can be tagged as a PPDS product, triggering additional reporting and options for the user.
The system enables the user to add product data to their PPDS recipes. They can then build a list of ingredients and can extract that list as an Excel file. The file can then be used to create suitable labels for the packaging, and the Pi development team have already linked the system to the formats of several label providers, to ensure compatibility.
Natasha’s law places strict requirements on the display of ingredient information, from the size of text on a package to the order in which constituents are listed and the way allergens are highlighted. Pi makes all this simpler and ensures that users are in a position to easily comply with Natasha’s Law – and to better protect customers with allergies.
You can also use The Foodcheker module to share menu details with customers much more easily!
Pi label printing integration partners
- LabelLogic Live is a multi-award winning food labelling app. It allows you to create allergen-safe, legally compliant food labels online then print using a home / office printer. So from product title and price to barcodes, allergens and full ingredient declaration, you can add as much or as little information as you require. Find out more here: http://planglow.com/labelling-software If you are an existing Pelican client Contact your Pelican Procurement Manager to discuss preferential prices.
- The DateCodeGenie system is cloud-based, centrally managed and fully customizable to meet your needs. Easily customize your labels with the drag-and-drop label designer. Find out more here: www.ncco.com/date-code-genie/ If you are an existing Pelican client Contact your Pelican Procurement Manager to discuss preferential prices.
We are here to help
If you would like to find out more about Pi and to arrange a demo – please contact us – we are here to help you.
