The allergen check most kitchens skip after a menu change

What changed

Since the prepacked-for-direct-sale (PPDS) rules — better known as Natasha's Law — took effect, any food you pack before a customer orders it must carry a full ingredient list with the 14 allergens emphasised. Enforcement visits increasingly focus on one thing: whether your labels and allergen matrix actually match what is in the kitchen today, not what was there when the menu was printed. If you changed suppliers or dishes this summer, that is the gap an officer will find.

A guide you can act on this week

Put 15 minutes in the diary and do this once per menu change:

• Pull the current allergen matrix and the last three delivery notes.
• Check every substituted product's label — a different brand of the "same" pesto or bouillon is a different ingredient list.
• Update the matrix, date it, and have the person who checked it initial it.
• Brief the change at the next shift handover — front of house included.

The initialled, dated matrix is the evidence that saves you when an officer asks "how do you know?"

A lesson from the field

A small bakery chain substituted a hazelnut-free chocolate spread with a cheaper alternative mid-season. The label never changed. There was no injury — a customer's sharp-eyed parent caught it — but the local authority treated it as a labelling offence, and the fine plus legal costs ran well into five figures. The preventive fix would have been a two-line update to the matrix and one reprinted label.

One number

Around 2 million people in the UK live with a diagnosed food allergy, according to the Food Standards Agency. Statistically, that is several of your covers every single service.

Not sure this applies to you?

If your menu changed and your allergen matrix didn't, it applies. Book a free 15-minute compliance check with one of our consultants and we'll tell you exactly where you stand.

This is general guidance, not legal advice, and doesn’t replace a site-specific risk assessment.