Natasha's Law changed the rules for anyone who makes food and packs it on the same site they sell it from — the sandwich counter, the farm shop, the bakery, the deli. If that's you, the food you wrap needs a full ingredient list with allergens emphasised. Here's exactly what counts, what the label has to show, and where producers still trip up.
What Natasha's Law actually is
Natasha's Law is the everyday name for the change to allergen labelling that took effect across the UK in October 2021, following the death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse from an allergic reaction to a baguette that carried no ingredient information. It closed a gap: food that was prepacked for direct sale used to be exempt from ingredient labelling. Now it isn't.
The law works through a category called PPDS — prepacked for direct sale. Get whether your product is PPDS right, and the labelling rules follow directly from it.
What counts as PPDS — and what doesn't
Food is PPDS when it is packaged before a customer orders it, at the same place it's offered for sale. The classic examples: a sandwich made and wrapped in the morning for the chiller; a tub of soup filled at the counter; boxed salads on a farm-shop shelf you also bake and pack on site.
- PPDS — needs the full label: food packed on site before being ordered, and sold at that same site or from a mobile/temporary stall you run.
- Not PPDS — made to order: a sandwich wrapped only after the customer asks for it, or food served loose. Allergen information must still be available, but not necessarily on a pack label.
- Not PPDS — already prepacked: food that was packed by someone else, or by you at a different site for distribution, falls under standard FIR back-of-pack rules instead.
The test is timing plus place: packed before it's ordered, at the same site it's sold. If both are true, it's PPDS and it needs a full ingredient label — no exceptions for “we only make a few”.
What the PPDS label must show
A PPDS label carries two things, and both have to be right:
- The name of the food — a real, descriptive name, not just a brand or “sandwich”.
- A full ingredients list, in descending order of weight, with the 14 regulated allergens emphasised wherever they appear — normally in bold, but any consistent emphasis (CAPITALS, colour, underline) is acceptable as long as it stands out from the rest of the list.
That's the legal minimum for PPDS specifically. A “may contain” cross-contamination statement is voluntary, but if you use one it must be truthful and based on a real assessment — not a blanket disclaimer bolted onto everything. Best-before or use-by dates, storage and business details come from the wider labelling rules and are good practice to include.
The mistakes that cause a recall
The label is only ever as accurate as the recipe behind it. The failures we see are rarely about the format — they're about the ingredient data drifting away from what's actually in the pack:
- A recipe changes and the label doesn't. A supplier switches a mayo for one containing mustard; the printed label still says what it said last month.
- A sub-ingredient hides an allergen. The bought-in pesto contains cashew; the sandwich label lists “pesto” and stops there. You have to declare allergens in compound ingredients too.
- Emphasis missing on one line. Wheat flour is bold in three places and plain in the fourth — enough to fail an inspection and, worse, to mislead someone.
- The same product, two label versions. A handwritten label at one counter and a printed one at another, saying different things.
The walk-in-ready checklist
Before your food safety officer visits, you should be able to tick all of these for every PPDS line:
- A descriptive product name, not just a brand or category.
- A full ingredients list in descending weight order.
- All 14 allergens emphasised, consistently, everywhere they appear.
- Allergens declared inside compound and bought-in ingredients.
- Labels regenerated whenever the recipe or a supplier spec changed.
- One agreed label version per product across every point of sale.
- Any “may contain” statement backed by a real cross-contamination assessment.
The bottom line
Natasha's Law isn't hard to comply with — it's hard to keep complying with, because recipes and suppliers change and hand-maintained labels don't keep up. Decide clearly which products are PPDS, drive every label from the current recipe, and reprint the moment anything upstream moves. Do that and the label stays honest on its own.
Labels that follow the recipe.
See how Prodara keeps every PPDS label accurate, automatically.