# Group allergen management software for UK hospitality groups

Canonical: https://paddl-ai.co/features/group-allergen-management
Last reviewed: 2026-11-07 by the Paddl team

When a restaurant group changes a recipe or a supplier, Paddl's group allergen management makes the change once at head office and every venue's linked dishes follow: an allergen gained shows at once on each venue's chart, menus, public allergen page and QR codes, an allergen removed stays showing until someone at each venue confirms it, and each venue acknowledges the update, so head office sees which sites have it and each venue's audit pack shows who was told and when.

## What Paddl's group allergen management software does

- Master dishes, prep items and the bought-in products in them, held once in the organisation library; each venue holds a linked copy
- An allergen head office adds shows at once at every linked venue: allergen chart, menus, public allergen page, QR codes, website embed and exports
- An allergen head office removes keeps showing at each venue until an owner or whole-business manager there confirms it; one confirm covers the item and every dish that loses it
- A dish a venue takes for the first time arrives unconfirmed and stays off its public page, exports, audit pack and labels until someone there checks it
- Each venue acknowledges every update within 7 days, with reminders; the master's History shows head office which venues have applied and acknowledged each version
- Ingredients, allergens (add-only), label, shelf life and method locked at the venue; a venue can add an allergen for its own kitchen but never remove the group's
- Local variants: a venue whose supplier differs swaps the ingredient with a reason head office can see
- A Products tab in the library: each group product keeps its allergens, its ingredients list and the supplier spec as a document, and each venue sees "Spec from head office" with its date
- A link review for the products venues already have: matched by supplier code, then exact name, never fuzzy or automatic, with the allergen differences shown so a person picks link or skip
- Delivery notes match a venue's linked group products first, and a delivery bringing a substitute raises "Substitute for group product" for the venue to settle
- Supplier approval stays with each venue: a supplier added from head office arrives unapproved
- An impact preview before publishing ("Adds sesame to 6 dishes in 7 businesses"), and a typed confirm when one publish changes more than 20 dishes
- One notice per update listing what to reprint: the allergen matrix, menus, posters and in-date labels
- A brand can set how the public allergen page looks for every business in it
- Each change appears in the venue's allergen change log and audit pack as Head office, with who published it, who acknowledged it and who confirmed a removal
- The venue's audit pack says which group version it showed on each date, such as "Group standard v4 applied 3 Mar, acknowledged 4 Mar"
- A group food view on the organisation home: where any product or dish is used across brands, and per business the dishes waiting to be confirmed, held removals and unacknowledged updates with their age, local variants, stricter-locally allergens, unlinked look-alikes, till gaps and the menu version on its public page
- Per business, the share of staff with current allergen training, whether written allergen information covers all 14 allergens for every dish on each menu, and the Labl.it sync state, with Remind for any business that is behind
- A group allergen procedure export, PDF or CSV, for a Primary Authority or EHO: the masters and their version history, each business's apply and acknowledgement times, held removals and how long they took to confirm, substitutions and training coverage
- Group menus in the library: name and sections locked, the dish list open for local specials or locked for a fixed-menu brand, scoped to a brand so only its businesses get it
- Each business keeps its own sites, served times, page, QR code and poster for a group menu, and a dish new to it stays off the page until someone there confirms it
- A dish head office takes off a menu leaves it at once and stays on the venue's chart; a venue can mark a dish it does not serve as Not served here
- An Erudus feed for the library or a single business: synced daily, products matched by GTIN or supplier code with a person confirming each, every spec change a review card a person approves before it flows to the venues
- Central kitchen: transfers from a site that makes food for others, with batches and use-by dates; the receiving business holds the item linked to the source, so allergens follow it (gains at once, removals held), and receiving books a batch
- The label route worked out per transfer line: PPDS when made and sold on site, full prepacked labelling produced by Paddl when packed centrally and sold at another fixed site, allergen information sent with it when supplied to another business
- Ask Paddy shares a dish with the group, makes a group menu, publishes an update, shows where a dish is used, and creates, receives and lists central kitchen transfers, once you confirm

## What it does not do

- Central kitchen covers transfers, batches, use-by dates and the label route, not production planning, stock or internal ordering; for two sites of one business, confirm the label route with your Primary Authority or EHO
- Erudus is the one supplier data feed; other products' allergens come from supplier specs you upload (Paddl reads them with AI) or are entered by hand
- Billing stays per business: each venue keeps its own subscription, with no organisation invoice or volume discount
- Paddl builds the PPDS label wording from the recipe but is not a label printer: the Excel export is in the layout Labl.it imports, and a direct Labl.it connection is coming

## Pricing

- **Price:** £69 per location per month, or £703.80 a year (15% off). Every feature is on the one plan.
- **Trial:** 30 days free with full access. Card required, cancel anytime, no contract after.
- **Included per location:** 5 users and 10GB of document storage. Extra users are £2.99 a month each.
- **Covers:** SFBB, HACCP, allergens and Natasha's Law, temperature and cleaning records, training records, COSHH, risk assessments, licences and insurance, and an EHO-ready audit pack.
- **Apps:** Staff app for iOS and Android with team chat, web dashboard for managers, shared venue tablets with PIN tap-in; works on any phone or tablet.
- **Company:** Paddl is a trading name of Trading Projects Ltd, company number 16456940, registered in England.

Pricing page: https://paddl-ai.co/pricing

## Questions

**How does a restaurant group update allergens at every venue at once?**

Keep the dish, its prep items and the products in it once at head office, and give each venue a linked copy. In Paddl, a supplier change (say a brioche bun that now contains sesame) is made once on the master and published. The sesame shows straight away on every venue's chart, menus, public allergen page and QR codes. Each venue then acknowledges the update, and head office sees which have.

**How do we prove each site was told about an allergen change?**

Every venue acknowledges each update, within 7 days, with reminders before the date. The acknowledgement is recorded on the item's change log with the person and time, and head office sees applied and acknowledged for every venue in the master's History. A venue can send its team one message about the change in the same step, which stays in team chat as a record.

**Why are allergen removals not applied at once?**

A removal makes a dish look safer to a customer, so Paddl never applies one without a person at the venue checking it. Until an owner or a manager for the whole business confirms, the venue keeps showing the allergen. That is stricter, never unsafe, and head office can see which venues still have a removal waiting.

**Can a venue change a group recipe?**

Not the parts head office locks: ingredients, allergens, label, shelf life and method start locked. A venue can add an allergen for its own kitchen, such as may contain sesame from a shared fryer, and it survives every group update. If its supplier differs, it declares a local variant with a reason head office sees.

**Does the QR code allergen menu update when head office changes a recipe?**

Yes. Each venue's public allergen page, its QR codes and the website embed are built from live data, so they are right as soon as the update applies. Paper is not, so the update lists what to reprint: the matrix, menus, posters and labels still in date.

**Does this work if our sites are one business rather than separate companies?**

Yes, without an organisation. Within one Paddl business, products roll up into dishes: an allergen a product gains reaches every dish at every site at once, and a removal waits for someone to confirm it. Each site's allergen menu draws on the same dishes. The organisation layer is for groups whose brands or franchisees are separate businesses.

**Does it work with a central kitchen?**

Yes, with the Central kitchen module. Mark the site that makes food for others, inside one business or across an organisation, and send transfers with batches and use-by dates. The receiving business holds each item linked to the source, so its allergens follow the source: a gain at once, a removal held until someone there confirms it. Receiving books a batch for traceability, and transfers in and out appear in each audit pack. Paddl works out the label route for each line; where both sites belong to one business, confirm that route with your Primary Authority or EHO.

**What can we show our Primary Authority?**

The group allergen procedure export, a PDF or CSV that organisation admins download. It covers the group's masters and their version history, when each business applied and acknowledged each version, held removals and how long they took to confirm, substitutions, and allergen training coverage per business. At a single venue, the audit pack shows the same trail for that venue, including which group version it showed on each date.

**Our venues already have the same products. Do we start again?**

No. Add the product to the library from any business, then run the link review. For each venue Paddl lists its products that match by supplier code, then by exact name, never a fuzzy guess and never linked automatically. A person sees the allergen differences and picks link or skip for each pair. On link, any group allergen the venue lacks is added at once, and any allergen the venue has that the master does not stays as stricter locally. Linking never changes the venue's own confirmations.

**What happens when a delivery brings a substitute for a group product?**

The venue gets a review headed "Substitute for group product" and the product name, with three choices: it has the same allergens (no change), add the substitute's allergens to the group product at this venue (stricter, kept locally), or declare a local variant with a reason head office can see. Delivery notes otherwise match the venue's linked group products before creating anything new, so duplicates do not pile up.

**Can head office share a whole menu with each venue?**

Yes. A group menu is kept in the organisation library with its name, note, sections and dishes, and can be for everyone, chosen brands or chosen areas, so the Burger Shop menu reaches only Burger Shop businesses, including one that joins the brand later. Each venue picks the sites that serve it, sets its served times and publishes its own page and QR code. The dish list starts open so a venue can add local specials, and head office can lock it for a brand with a fixed menu. A dish new to a venue stays off its page until someone there confirms it, and the menu and the venue's Allergens home show what is waiting.

**What does group allergen management cost?**

An organisation is free for anyone who owns two or more businesses. Each business keeps its own subscription at £69 per site per month, with every feature included, no organisation invoice and no volume discount.

## Related

- [Best Allergen Management Software (2026)](https://paddl-ai.co/best/best-allergen-management-software)
- [Allergen management software](https://paddl-ai.co/features/allergens): Paddl's allergen management software keeps an allergen matrix for all 14 UK allergens, imports dishes from a menu and allergens from supplier specs with AI, flags PPDS items under Natasha's Law, logs every change, and gives staff the answer on their phone when a customer asks.
- [Multi-business compliance software](https://paddl-ai.co/features/organisations): A Paddl organisation ties separate hospitality businesses together without merging them. Head office keeps a library of master HACCP plans, SFBB packs, risk assessments, SOPs, documents, routines, group dishes and group menus, gives them to each business and keeps them linked, so every change reaches each business as an update: plans and SOPs are reviewed section by section, and a dish, product or menu change goes live at once, with allergen removals held until someone at each venue confirms. Each business keeps its own billing, records and staff, and the organisation sees readiness and update status, never staff or records.
- [Supplier management software](https://paddl-ai.co/features/suppliers): Paddl's supplier management software keeps an approved supplier list with each supplier's certificates and allergen specs, turns a supplier's order confirmation or delivery note into a due delivery with every product linked to your allergen chart, and has staff check it in on the app with chilled and frozen temperatures, so traceability for an EHO or a recall is one search.
- [Staff training software](https://paddl-ai.co/features/training): Paddl's staff training software delivers scenario-based food safety, allergen, fire and COSHH modules on the app, issues verifiable certificates, records courses taken with other providers and in-house training against each person, and shows a compliance matrix of who is trained on what and when it is due.