Thanks to tireless campaigning by Natasha Ednan-Laperouse’s parents, Natasha’s Law requires all foods made and packaged on the premises for direct sale (PPDS) to display full ingredients and allergen information on the labelling so that sandwiches like the one she ate do not have hidden allergen ingredients such as sesame.
Four years on since its inception, Natasha’s Law’s impact on F&B retail and public sector catering in particular, where grab-and-go food is prominent, has been extensive. It has opened the door for more evolved safeguarding and efficiencies thanks to the adoption of digital menu management and electronic point of sale (EPoS) systems.
The NHS has, in some cases, been ahead of the curve for allergen safeguarding. For example, the University Hospital of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust introduced full allergen labelling a year before Natasha’s Law was passed on 1st October 2021.
To ensure ingredients are being tracked and labelled accurately, kitchens across the public sector have reviewed processes, rolled out mandatory allergy awareness training, and invested in digital menu management. As a result, allergen sufferers have increased peace of mind and reduced stress every time they need to eat out, which, in a hospital or school, is even more vital.
Early EPoS adopters and the accompanying benefits
It’s the digital adoption that is particularly interesting since Natasha’s Law was introduced, and this is where hospitals had a slight head start in many cases. The Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 forced heroic hospital staff to work incredibly long hours, day and night, with unprecedented challenges in social distancing, PPE and operational adjustments to safeguard both patients and staff.
This is when digital meal ordering systems truly started to gain momentum within hospitals, purely out of necessity to manage catering in a safe and efficient way. The benefit of digital adoption is data: hospital staff, as regular users of on-site catering services, could have the ability to record their allergens in their profile, therefore tailoring their on-screen menu options to their dietary needs.
With this in play, the kitchen has access to a goldmine of data that enables it to better plan for the most relevant allergens in that particular hospital – there’s no use creating a menu filled with nuts if 40% of your customers have a nut allergy, making a nut-free kitchen may be sensible, for example.
Not only would this add an additional safeguarding layer, but it also supports the mission to reduce food waste if you’re only producing food in the kitchen that the large majority of your customers can safely eat or tolerate.
Digital ordering also allows hospital employees, who are famously time-poor, to enjoy their food without wasting time in queues during their limited break and examining the labelled packaging because they know the menu available to their digital order profile is tailored to their dietary needs.
The future relationship between EPoS and Natasha’s Law
While hospitals may have already been well on their way to shifting to digital ordering platforms because of the specific pressures of working in a healthcare environment, Natasha’s Law has been instrumental in pushing public sector catering into finding more efficient ways to comply with allergen legislation.
The result is less waste, less room for human error and peace of mind and convenience for employees and customers alike. Ultimately Natasha’s legacy expands far more than PPDS labelling: it’s redefined how catering establishments factor allergens into overall operational management and customer service: further highlighting the significance of the legislation.