Few areas of food law carry the emotional weight of allergen control. The death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse in 2016, after eating a baguette with undeclared sesame, led directly to Natasha’s Law, which since October 2021 has required full ingredient and allergen labelling on food prepacked for direct sale (PPDS). Behind the legislation sits a simple truth: for around two million people in the UK living with food allergies, accurate allergen information is a matter of life and death.
What the law requires now
UK food businesses have three overlapping sets of allergen duties:
- The 14 regulated allergens must be declared wherever they appear as ingredients, from celery and cereals containing gluten through to sesame, soya and sulphites.
- Prepacked food needs full ingredient labelling with allergens emphasised in the list.
- PPDS food, anything packed on the premises before the customer orders it, like grab-and-go sandwiches, needs a full ingredient list with allergens emphasised, on the pack, under Natasha’s Law.
- Non-prepacked (loose) food, restaurant meals, deli counters, bakery items, requires allergen information to be available and accurate, whether in writing or verbally with written signposting.
The Food Standards Agency has also strengthened its guidance for food businesses on providing allergen information conversationally and never guessing. “I think it’s fine” has featured in too many inquests.
Where businesses actually fail
Allergen incidents rarely come from ignorance of the list of 14. They come from process failures: an ingredient substitution by a supplier that nobody checked; a recipe change that didn’t reach the allergen matrix; cross-contact from shared fryers, utensils or prep surfaces; a casual worker answering an allergy question without checking. Each of those is a management failure before it’s a staff failure, which is why allergen control needs a trained, named owner in every food business, with a system they understand and maintain.
Level 2 knowledge isn’t enough for the person in charge
Basic allergen awareness belongs in every food handler’s induction. But the person who designs the allergen matrix, verifies supplier information, decides cross-contact controls and trains the team needs more. That’s the role our Level 3 Food Allergen Management course is built for: supervisors, chefs, managers and owners who carry responsibility for allergen safety.
The course covers allergen science and reactions, the full legal framework including Natasha’s Law, building and maintaining allergen information systems, cross-contact control in real kitchens, communicating with allergic customers, and what to do when things go wrong, all online, at your own pace, with a certificate on completion.
Build it into your wider food safety system
Allergen control shouldn’t stand alone, it belongs inside your HACCP-based food safety management system, with allergens treated as a hazard category in their own right. If you’re responsible for that system, pair the allergen course with Level 3 Principles of HACCP and Level 3 Supervising Food Safety. Together they give the person in charge of food safety the full toolkit, and give your business a documented, defensible standard of care.
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