Natasha's Law changed UK food labelling for good. This page explains the rule, who it applies to, what happens when it's breached, and how Global Nutrition Value produces compliant PPDS labels in seconds - tied to a verifiable audit trail.
Natasha's Law is the everyday name for the UK Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019 and its parallel UK-wide instruments. It came into force on 1 October 2021, named in memory of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died in 2016 after eating a baguette that contained sesame, an allergen not declared on the label.
The rule is short. Any food prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) on the same premises where it is sold must carry, on the label, the name of the food and a full ingredients list with the 14 specified allergens emphasised - typically in bold, italic, underline, or a contrasting colour.
PPDS in plain English: food packed by the same business that sells it, before the customer asks for it. Sandwiches, salad pots, pasta boxes, sushi platters, sliced cakes, ready-to-go drinks - all PPDS. Made-to-order at the counter is not PPDS.
Natasha's Law applies to any UK food business that produces PPDS, regardless of size or sector. That includes:
Wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt, kamut and their hybrids.
Prawns, crab, lobster, crayfish.
Hen, duck, quail and other bird eggs.
All finned fish and derived ingredients.
Including peanut oil and peanut flour.
Including soy sauce, lecithin, isolate.
Including lactose, casein, whey, butter.
Almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, brazils, pistachios, macadamia.
Including celeriac, stalk, leaf, seed.
Including powder, paste, oil, leaf.
Seeds, paste (tahini), oil.
Above 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/litre.
Including flour and seeds.
Mussels, oysters, squid, octopus.
The legal exposure is unlimited. Under the Food Safety Act 1990 and the Food Information Regulations 2014, breaches carry unlimited fines on conviction. Where a death or serious injury results, prosecutors have the option to bring corporate manslaughter charges or pursue individual directors under section 14 health and safety legislation.
The hidden costs are usually larger than the fine: brand damage that survives long after the news cycle, loss of contracts in regulated sectors (NHS, schools, prisons), insurance premium increases, and the operational disruption of a recall or product withdrawal.
GNV is built so that PPDS labelling is a by-product of normal kitchen work, not a separate compliance task layered on top:
Yes. GNV automates PPDS labelling end-to-end. Every label carries the full ingredient list with the 14 EU allergens emphasised, the product name, and a verifiable production record. Allergen status is recalculated automatically when ingredients or recipes change.
Yes - any "free from" claim made on a PPDS label must be backed by a documented allergen control regime. GNV records every step from supplier verification to production line cleaning, so "free from" claims are evidence-backed rather than aspirational.
Yes. The amendments are substantively aligned across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. GNV produces labels in the bilingual formats required where applicable.
Those fall under EU 1169 prepacked rules rather than PPDS, but GNV handles both formats from the same recipe data - so you can run an in-house bakery and a centrally produced grab-and-go range from one platform.
One kitchen typically goes live in 5 to 10 working days, including supplier specification import, recipe build-out, and first-day printing.
Start a pilot in one kitchen. PPDS labels live within a week. Free pilot window dates available.
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