UK food businesses call for food labelling improvements

Helen Henshaw - CAO
24th April 2023

For England-based businesses working in the food industry, Natasha’s Law brought essential changes to food
labelling regulations as of October 2021.

The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) published industry guidelines to support businesses as they adapted to
these legislative changes. All food businesses of all sizes legally have to implement some sort of food labelling
system.

To assist our foodservice customers when the legislation was introduced, CSD developed functionality that
provides our customers with the ability to send product attribute data to their customers. Based on a series of
templates, the information can be sent in a variety of formats with different delivery options.

Fast forward to 2023 and the bosses of 11 of the UK’s leading food businesses have written an open letter
calling for clearer rules still on food labelling after the deaths of two further Pret a Manger customers who
suffered allergic reactions.

Pret is among the businesses that have signed the letter, together with Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Marks &
Spencer and Greggs, who also want a mandatory system to ensure the swift reporting of food-related
anaphylaxis cases.

The letter argues that the Food Standards Agency (FSA) needs to “make a clear decision on [allergen]
thresholds and a strong recommendation to ministers.”

It continues: “This would provide sellers of food with an absolute definition of how much of a specific allergen
pre-packed food could safely contain before being labelled as free of that allergen. Implementation would
enable food producers to bring in consistent industry-standard testing and help keep the most allergic
consumers safe and increase the choice of foods they can consume.”

Whatever the outcome, CSD will be ready to support our customers with the implementation of any further
legislative changes.