How Does Natasha's Law (PPDS) Apply to a Restaurant Group or a Central Production Kitchen?
What Natasha's Law means for a UK restaurant group or central kitchen: which food is PPDS, which is fully prepacked, and keeping labels right across sites.
Natasha's Law applies to food prepacked for direct sale (PPDS): packed before the customer chooses it, at the place it is sold. Food a group makes and packs in each venue's own kitchen for sale there is PPDS and needs the name and a full ingredients list with the 14 allergens emphasised. Food packed in a central kitchen and sent to other sites to sell is generally not PPDS: it is prepacked food and needs the full prepacked label. The FSA's guidance also treats food packed and then sold by the same operator from a market stall or mobile site as PPDS.
Key Facts
In Detail
The PPDS test has three parts, and all three must be true: the food is in packaging when the customer sees it, it was packed before they chose it, and it was packed at the place it is sold. For a single cafe that is simple. For a group it turns on where the packing happens. If each venue makes and wraps its own sandwiches, salads or cakes for its own chiller, that food is PPDS at every venue, and every venue needs a label with the name of the food and the full ingredients list, in descending order of weight, with the 14 allergens emphasised each time they appear. If a central kitchen makes and packs the food and lorries it to the venues, the same-place part fails, so it is generally prepacked food and needs the fuller label prepacked food carries, including the business name and address, a date mark, net quantity where it applies and storage conditions. The FSA's guidance treats food packed by an operator and sold by the same operator from a market stall or mobile site as PPDS, so a van or a kiosk run by the venue is still in scope. Where your model sits between these, ask your local authority or primary authority before you print. Either way the risk for a group is the same: the label is only as good as the recipe behind it, and a supplier change has to reach every site that prints. In Paddl, the PPDS label wording is built from the recipe (ingredients in weight order, every allergen in bold, warnings where the list cannot be exact), and when head office changes a group dish or product, every venue's recipe follows and the update lists labels printed from Paddl that are still in date. Paddl's Central kitchen module records what a central kitchen sends to each site, with batches and use-by dates, and works out the label route for each line: PPDS where food is made and sold on the same site, full prepacked labelling (which Paddl produces from the recipe) where it is packed centrally and sold at another fixed site, and allergen information that travels with the food where it goes to another business. Where both sites belong to one business, confirm the route with your Primary Authority or EHO before you print; Paddl's help says the same.
Examples across a group
A bakery chain that bakes and bags rolls in each shop: PPDS in each shop. A coffee group whose sandwiches are made at a hub and delivered to its cafes each morning: prepacked, full label, made at the hub. A pub group whose kitchens wrap cakes for the bar counter: PPDS at each pub. The same pub group's Sunday roast boxed after the customer orders it: not PPDS, loose food, allergen information on request.
Running a central kitchen in Paddl
Mark the site that makes food for others, in one business or across an organisation. Each transfer out lists what was sent, its batch and its use-by date, and the receiving site books it in as a batch, so a recall can be traced both ways. A receiving business holds each item linked to the source, so its allergens follow the central kitchen's recipe: an allergen gained shows at once, one removed waits for someone at the receiving site to confirm it. Transfers in and out appear in each site's audit pack, and Ask Paddy can create, receive and list transfers once you confirm.
Keeping labels right at every site
Print labels from the recipe, never write them by hand. Make the recipe change once, centrally, and make sure every site that prints the label gets it. Treat a missing label as not for sale. Check every delivery against the spec, because a substituted mayonnaise changes every label that uses it (in Paddl, a substitute for a group product raises a review at the venue that received it). Record allergen training for everyone who packs PPDS food.
Which label a group needs
| Where the food is packed | Where it is sold | Category | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| In the venue, before the customer chooses | The same venue | PPDS | Name and full ingredients list with the 14 allergens emphasised |
| In the venue | A market stall or van run by the same operator | PPDS (FSA guidance) | Name and full ingredients list with allergens emphasised |
| In a central kitchen | Other sites of the group | Prepacked | Full prepacked label, including business name and address and a date mark |
| After the customer orders | The same venue | Loose (non-prepacked) | No label required; allergen information available |
| Anywhere, ordered online for delivery | Distance selling | Distance selling | Allergen information before purchase and at delivery |
Frequently Asked Questions
Can our central kitchen use PPDS labels?
Generally not for food it sends to other sites to sell: that food is prepacked and needs the full prepacked label. Ask your primary or local authority if your arrangement is unusual.
Does Paddl print the labels?
Paddl builds the PPDS ingredients list from the recipe and exports the allergen data in the Excel layout Labl.it imports; a direct Labl.it connection is coming. For food packed in a central kitchen and sold at another site, Paddl produces the full prepacked label from the recipe.
Can we trace what the central kitchen sent to each site?
Yes. With the Central kitchen module each transfer records the batch and use-by date of every line, the receiving site books a batch when it receives it, and transfers in and out appear in each site's audit pack.
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.