What is Natasha's Law and does software handle it?

It is the common name for the change made by the Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019, which requires food prepacked for direct sale to carry a label with a full ingredients list and allergenic ingredients emphasised. Software helps by holding recipe and ingredient data and generating labels from it, but the duty and the accuracy of the underlying data remain the business's.

How many allergens have to be declared?

Fourteen. FSA guidance states that only the 14 listed allergens are required to be declared as allergens by food law: celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, nuts, peanuts, sesame, soya and sulphur dioxide or sulphites.

Guide

Allergen management in food safety software

Updated 2026-08-15

Allergen information is the part of food law with the least room for a judgement call, and the part software is most often bought to fix.

The 14, and where they have to appear

FSA guidance states that food businesses must tell customers if any food they provide contains any of the 14 listed allergens as an ingredient, and that "only the 14 allergens are required to be declared as allergens by food law" (FSA on gov.uk, last updated 17 July 2026). They are celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, nuts, peanuts, sesame, soya and sulphur dioxide or sulphites.

Prepacked for direct sale

The change usually referred to as Natasha's Law was made by the Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019, which inserted a duty to list ingredients on food prepacked for direct sale. The FSA describes PPDS as "foods that have been packed on the same premises from which they are being sold", commonly sandwiches, salads and pies made and sold on site, and states that they "need to have a label with a full ingredients list with allergenic ingredients emphasised within it". Non-prepacked loose food is different again: allergen information must be supplied for every item containing any of the 14, by any means, including a menu, chalkboard or information pack.

This is the reason recipe data and allergen data belong in the same system. A label is generated from an ingredients list, and an ingredients list changes when a supplier substitutes a product.

Which products state that they handle allergens

FoodDocs, from its Standard tier: an instant overview of allergens, alongside a digital recipe book.
Kelsius: a separate Allergen App is listed in its product range.
Monika: "Allergens can be easily identified for dishes and ingredients."
Food Alert: allergen and nutrition management in the software, plus menu checks and allergen guides as a service.
Shield Safety RiskProof: allergen checks named as part of the kitchen routines, with a safety advice line behind it.
Not stated on the pages we read: Trail's pricing page, Checkit's food safety and sensor pages, and Safefood 360's modules page do not name allergen management. That is a statement about those pages, not a conclusion about the products.

What to test on a demo

Change one ingredient in one recipe and see what the system updates automatically, and what it does not.
Ask how a supplier specification change reaches the recipe, and whether anyone is told.
Ask what the PPDS label output looks like, and whether the allergens are emphasised in the ingredients list as the FSA requires.
Ask what front-of-house staff see when a customer asks, and how current it is.
Ask what the system records when an allergen question is answered, because that record is your evidence.

The limits of software here

No product removes the cross-contamination question, which is a kitchen practice problem rather than a data problem, and FSA guidance is clear that customers must be told about allergens present as ingredients. Software gets the ingredient data right and keeps it current. Whether the dish that leaves the pass matches the label is still down to the people making it.