When a Restaurant Group Changes a Recipe or Supplier, How Does It Update Allergens at Every Venue and Prove Each Site Was Told?
How a UK restaurant group pushes a recipe or supplier allergen change to every venue at once and keeps proof that each site saw it, with held removals.
Hold each dish, its prep items and the bought-in products in them once at head office, give every venue a linked copy, and make the change there. In Paddl an allergen the group adds shows at every venue at once (chart, menus, public allergen page, QR codes), an allergen it removes waits until someone at each venue confirms it, and every venue acknowledges the update. Head office sees which venues have applied and acknowledged it, and each venue's change log and audit pack record who was told and when.
Key Facts
In Detail
The usual way a group handles a supplier change is an email from head office and a hope. The brioche bun now contains sesame, the head of food tells the area managers, and each kitchen updates its own matrix, its menus, its labels and whatever sits behind the QR code on the tables. Some do it that day. Some never see the email. When a guest reacts at one venue, nobody can say whether that venue knew. The fix is to stop keeping twenty copies of the recipe. The dish, its sauces and bases, and the products inside them are held once by head office, and every venue that serves the dish holds a copy linked to that master. A change is made once and travels down the link. Two rules make it safe. A gain (the bun now contains sesame) goes live everywhere straight away, because showing an extra allergen is never the dangerous mistake. A removal (the supplier took soya out) waits at each venue until someone there who knows the kitchen confirms it, because a removal makes a dish look safer than it may be. Proof is the second half. Each venue acknowledges the update: it sees what changed, reprints what is on paper, can send its team one message about it, and records who acknowledged and when. Head office sees, for every venue, whether the update applied and whether it was acknowledged, and who is overdue. In Paddl this is the group food library: an organisation (free for owners of two or more businesses) keeps master dishes, prep items and products; each venue acknowledges within 7 days with reminders; the change shows on the venue's allergen change log and in its audit pack as Head office with the publisher's name. If your sites are all inside one business, you do not need an organisation: a product that gains an allergen already updates every dish at every site at once.
What happens at each venue
Head office publishes the change with a note. At every linked venue the dish, and every dish that uses the changed product or sauce, shows the new allergen on the chart, the menus, the public allergen page, its QR codes, the website embed and the exports. The owner and managers get one notice for the update, not one per dish, saying what changed and how many dishes and menus it touched, with the new PDFs to print and the in-date labels to replace.
Why removals are held
If a supplier takes an allergen out, the venue keeps showing it until an owner or a manager for the whole business confirms. One confirm covers the product and every dish that loses the allergen because of it, and a dish that still gets the allergen from another ingredient keeps it. If head office puts the allergen back before the venue confirms, the removal simply goes away.
What proves each site was told
Three records. The acknowledgement, with the person and time, on the item's change log. The team message the venue can send in the same step, which stays in team chat. And head office's view of the master's History: every version, and for each business whether it applied and when it was acknowledged. An EHO at the venue sees the same trail in the audit pack, with head office's change named as Head office rather than looking like the venue's own edit, and which group version the venue showed on each date ("Group standard v4 applied 3 Mar, acknowledged 4 Mar"). For a Primary Authority, head office can export the whole group allergen procedure as a PDF or CSV: masters and versions, apply and acknowledgement times per business, held removals and how long they took to confirm, substitutions and allergen training coverage.
When a delivery brings something else
Supplier swaps often start at the back door rather than at head office. In Paddl a venue's delivery note is matched to its linked group products first, so the same bun is not added twice. If the delivery brings a substitute, the venue gets a review headed "Substitute for group product" with three choices: the same allergens, add the substitute's allergens to the group product at that venue (stricter, kept locally), or declare a local variant with a reason head office sees. Head office keeps the supplier spec on the master as a document, and each venue sees which spec it is and its date.
What a venue can still change
Ingredients, allergens, label, shelf life and method start locked, so the brand standard holds. A venue can add an allergen for its own kitchen (may contain sesame from a shared fryer) and no group update takes it off. A venue whose supplier differs declares a local variant with a reason head office can see. Which of its own menus a dish is on, its till links and whether it is hidden from the public page stay the venue's own, and on a group menu so do its sites, served times and page.
Three ways a group pushes an allergen change
| Email and spreadsheets | Shared recipe database | Linked group dishes (Paddl) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the change is made | In every kitchen, by hand | Once, centrally | Once, centrally |
| Allergen gains | When each site gets to it | Depends on how sites read the data | Live at every venue at once |
| Allergen removals | Applied by whoever edits first | Usually applied at once | Held until someone at each venue confirms |
| QR code and website allergen page | Separate copy to update | Depends on the product | Built from live data, updated at once |
| Proof each site saw it | A sent email | Usually none per site | Acknowledgement per venue, visible to head office |
| In the venue's audit pack | No | Rarely | Yes, as Head office with names and times |
| Evidence for a Primary Authority | A folder of emails | Check with the vendor | Group allergen procedure export, PDF or CSV |
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is legally responsible for allergen information when the recipe comes from head office?
Each food business is responsible for the information it gives its customers, so a venue cannot hand that to head office. That is why the venue confirms removals, confirms a new dish before it reaches its public page, and acknowledges every update.
What if a venue does not acknowledge in time?
Nothing is undone: a gain is already live and a removal is still held. After 7 days head office sees the update as overdue for that venue, and can remind it from the organisation pages or by asking Paddy.
Do we need separate businesses for this?
No. If every site is in one Paddl business, products already roll up into dishes at every site. The organisation layer is for groups whose brands, companies or franchisees are separate businesses, and it costs nothing extra; each business keeps its own subscription.
Run every site to the same standard
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