Which UK Software Gives Each Restaurant a Live Allergen Menu QR Code That Updates When the Recipe Changes?
A live allergen menu and QR code that changes with the recipe: how it works in Paddl for one UK venue or a group, and what still needs reprinting.
Paddl does, for one restaurant or a group. Each venue gets a public allergen page with QR codes and a website embed, built from the same dishes and products as its allergen matrix. Change an ingredient and the page is right as soon as the change is saved; printed QR codes keep pointing at the live page. In a group, an allergen head office adds reaches every venue's page at once. It is part of Paddl at £69 per site per month.
Key Facts
In Detail
A QR allergen menu is only as good as the data behind it. Many are a PDF uploaded once, or a menu tool kept separately from the kitchen's allergen matrix, so the guest's phone and the chef's chart drift apart the first time a supplier changes a product. In Paddl the guest page reads the same records the kitchen uses. A dish's allergens come from its ingredients; a bought-in product carries the allergens from the supplier's spec. When a product gains an allergen, every dish that uses it gains it at once, on the chart, the menus, the public page and the exports. When a product loses one, the dishes keep showing it until a manager confirms, so the page never shows a dish as safer than it is on a guess. Each menu (Daytime, Evening, Sunday) can have its own page and QR code, and a guest can switch between the menus served at that site. Unpublishing a page and publishing it again keeps the same link, so printed codes keep working. For a group, the same thing happens across businesses. When head office changes a group dish or product, each venue's page, QR codes and embed update as soon as the change applies, and the update lists what is still on paper: printed matrices, menus, posters and labels. Head office can also keep the menu itself in the group library: each venue publishes its own page and QR code for it, a dish head office adds shows once someone at the venue confirms it, and a dish it takes off leaves the page at once.
What the guest sees
The venue's dishes, grouped by menu, with the 14 allergens for each: contains, may contain, and allergens the kitchen can leave out on request marked as removable rather than free from. Guests can filter out what they cannot eat. A brand in a group can set the page's logo, colours and introduction for all its venues.
What keeps it accurate
Allergens come from ingredients rather than being typed per dish, and suggestions Paddy makes from a supplier spec stay unconfirmed and off the page until someone checks the pack. A dish a venue takes from head office for the first time stays off its page until someone there confirms it.
Three kinds of QR allergen menu
| PDF behind a QR code | Menu tool kept separately | Page built from the matrix (Paddl) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Updates when a recipe changes | When someone uploads a new PDF | When someone edits the menu tool | At once, from the ingredients |
| Same data as the kitchen chart | No | Not necessarily | Yes |
| Allergen removals | Whatever was typed | Whatever was typed | Held until a manager confirms |
| Group change reaches every venue | No | Depends | Yes, as soon as it applies |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a QR code enough to meet allergen law?
For food served loose, allergen information can be given in writing or by staff, and a QR page can be part of that, but guests without a phone still need a way to get it, so keep the chart available and staff trained. Food prepacked for direct sale needs a label on the pack regardless.
Do we need to reprint QR codes when the menu changes?
No. The code points at the venue's live page. If you delete a menu, its code stops working, so take those posters down first; unpublishing and publishing again keeps the same link.
Run every site to the same standard
Start a trial with your site count already set, or book a 30-minute group demo and see it with your numbers.