Natasha's Law: what PPDS labelling means for your food business

Natasha's Law is the UK rule that food prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) must carry a full ingredients label, with the 14 allergens emphasised. PPDS food is food you pack on your own premises before the customer chooses it, like a wrapped sandwich in a café chiller. The rule has applied across the UK since 1 October 2021. Below: how to tell if your food is PPDS, what the label must show, and a checklist to get it right.

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This guide explains the rules in plain English. It is not legal advice. Your council's food safety or trading standards team can confirm what applies to your products.

What is Natasha's Law?

Natasha's Law is the common name for the change to UK food information rules on PPDS food. In England, it was made by the Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland made matching rules. All four came into force on 1 October 2021.

Before that date, food packed on site didn't need an ingredients label. Staff were expected to answer questions instead. Natasha's Law closed that gap.

Why it's called Natasha's Law

The law is named after Natasha Ednan-Laperouse. She was 15 when she died in 2016 after an allergic reaction to sesame. The sesame was baked into the dough of a baguette she bought at the airport before a flight. The packaging didn't list it, because food made and packed on site didn't need a full label then. Her parents campaigned for the change.

What is PPDS food?

PPDS stands for prepacked for direct sale. The FSA defines it as 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 picks it.

Food is "packaged" when:

• it's fully or partly enclosed by the packaging,
• it can't be changed without opening or changing the packaging, and
• it's ready to sell.

PPDS also covers food you pack and sell yourself from a market stall, van or other temporary or mobile outlet.

Three questions to tell if your food is PPDS

1. Did your business pack it? If another business packed it, it's ordinary prepacked food, and the maker's label covers it.
2. Is it sold from the same premises where it was packed (or from your own stall or van)?
3. Was it packed before the customer ordered or chose it? If you pack it after they order, it isn't PPDS.

If all three answers are "yes", it's PPDS and needs a Natasha's Law label.

PPDS food examples: is it PPDS or not?

The FSA gives examples for restaurants, cafés, pubs and takeaways. Here's how they sort out.

Not PPDS doesn't mean no allergen rules. Food that isn't PPDS is usually "loose" food. You must still give allergen information for it, in writing or verbally. See our guide to the 14 allergens.

Not sure? The FSA has a free online allergen and ingredients food labelling decision tool that asks a few questions and tells you which labelling rules apply.

What must a Natasha's Law label show?

A PPDS label needs two things:

1. The name of the food. Clear and accurate, such as "Ham and cheese sandwich on white bread".
2. A full ingredients list, with any of the 14 allergens emphasised every time they appear.

You can emphasise allergens with bold, CAPITALS, a contrasting colour or underlining. Pick one style and use it every time.

Anatomy of a PPDS label

Things to get right:

• List every ingredient, including what's inside compound ingredients like bread and mayonnaise. Copy these from your suppliers' labels.
• Name the specific cereal or nut: "WHEAT flour", "ALMONDS", not just "gluten" or "nuts".
• Order the ingredients by weight, heaviest first, as weighed when you made the food.
• Make it readable. Food labels have a minimum text size: an x-height of 1.2 mm, or 0.9 mm on packs where the largest surface is under 80 cm².
• Handwritten labels are fine if they meet the same rules and are easy to read.
• Very small packs (largest surface under 10 cm²) don't need the full ingredients list on the pack, but you must still give allergen information.

Useful extras (not required by Natasha's Law): a use-by or best-before date, storage instructions ("Keep refrigerated"), and your business name. Other rules may require some of these, so check with your council.

"May contain" on PPDS labels

Precautionary labels like "May contain sesame" are voluntary. Only use one after a risk assessment shows a real risk you can't control, such as a shared bakery line. Name the specific allergen. Don't put "may contain" on a product you also call "free from" that allergen.

Who does Natasha's Law apply to?

Any food business that sells PPDS food. That includes:

• cafés, coffee shops and sandwich shops
• bakeries and home bakers who pre-box cakes
• takeaways that pre-wrap items before the rush
• pubs and restaurants with grab-and-go fridges
• market stalls, food vans and street food traders who pack in advance
• schools, nurseries, care homes and hospitals that pre-pack food
• caterers who pre-pack buffet items or packed lunches

There's no small-business exemption. A one-person home bakery follows the same label rules as a chain.

Natasha's Law and online or delivery orders

Food sold by distance selling (online, by phone or through a delivery app) isn't covered by the PPDS label rule. But the distance-selling allergen rules still apply:

• allergen information must be available before the customer orders, and
• again when the food is delivered.

If you sell the same products in your shop and online, the simplest fix is to label everything the same way. Then the label covers you at delivery. Show the same allergen details on your online menu so customers can check before they buy.

Home bakers who post cakes: cakes you pack and post are sold at a distance. Different labelling rules can apply to posted food, so ask your council which ones cover your cakes.

How to comply with Natasha's Law: a checklist

1. List every product you pack before it's ordered. Walk the chiller, the counter and the heat lamp.
2. Write a product spec for each one. Every ingredient, every sub-ingredient, in weight order.
3. Collect supplier labels or specs for bread, sauces, cheese, ham, dressings, spreads and so on.
4. Mark the 14 allergens in each spec. Check against the 14 allergens list.
5. Design one label template. Name, ingredients, allergens in bold or capitals. Use our free allergen label maker or label printer software.
6. Print and check. A second person checks each new label against the spec before it goes on sale.
7. Control changes. If a supplier swaps a brand or a recipe changes, update the spec and the label before the next batch.
8. Train staff. Everyone who packs food must use the right label for the right product, every time.
9. Keep records. Keep specs, supplier labels and label versions. An inspector may ask.
10. Check your loose food too. For food made to order, keep an allergen matrix and a sign telling guests to ask.

What happens if you don't follow Natasha's Law?

Councils enforce the rules through their food safety or trading standards officers. If your labels are wrong or missing, they can give advice or serve an improvement notice. If you don't put it right, they can prosecute. The FSA says a conviction can mean an unlimited fine.

Labelling and allergen controls are also looked at during routine hygiene inspections. See what happens in an EHO inspection.

The bigger risk isn't the fine. A missing allergen on a label can kill.

Natasha's Law vs Owen's Law

They're often confused. Here's the difference.

Read the full story and the latest status in our Owen's Law guide.

Natasha's Law for cafés, bakeries and takeaways: quick tips

• Cafés and sandwich shops: the morning grab-and-go range is the big one. Build one spec per filling and reuse bread and spread specs.
• Bakeries: pre-boxed cakes and bagged cookies are PPDS. Loose items in the window aren't, but you still need allergen information for them.
• Takeaways: if you pre-wrap items before the rush, they're PPDS. Packing after the order avoids PPDS labelling, but you still owe allergen information before and at delivery for online orders.
• Home bakers and market stalls: label every pre-boxed item. Register your food business with the council at least 28 days before you start trading. See our guide to starting a cake business from home.

Selling online as well?

Many cafés and bakeries now take orders for collection. With Menuthere you build one menu for in-store QR ordering, collection and delivery, with 0% commission. Tag each dish with any of the 14 allergens and its calories, on every plan including Free. Customers see them when they open a dish, before they order, which is what the distance-selling rules ask for. Keep an allergen matrix to match; it can load your dish allergens from Menuthere. Pre-orders for a later collection time start on Lite (US$17 a month, billed in US dollars; your bank converts it). Menuthere doesn't print PPDS labels. Use the allergen label maker for those.

Take collection orders with allergen details on every dish. Free plan: QR codes, unlimited items, allergen tags, 0% commission.

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