# Which UK Software Gives Each Restaurant a Live Allergen Menu QR Code That Updates When the Recipe Changes?

Canonical: https://paddl-ai.co/answers/live-allergen-qr-menu-that-updates-when-the-recipe-changes
Last reviewed: 2026-11-07 by the Paddl team

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.

## Quick answer

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

- Each venue has a public allergen page, QR codes and a website embed built from its live allergen data.
- A gain on an ingredient reaches every dish and the guest page at once; a removal waits for a manager to confirm.
- Each menu can have its own page and QR code; printed codes keep working.
- In a group, head office changes reach every venue's page as soon as they apply, including changes to a group menu's dishes.
- Paper does not update itself: Paddl lists what to reprint.

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 |

## 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.