24th September 2021
Dear parents/ carers,
I’ll jump straight into an important update regarding Natasha’s Law this week, which comes into effect from the 1st October 2021.
What is happening?
New legislation (the Food Information (Amendment) Regulations 2019) is being introduced to provide further protection to allergy sufferers who order and buy foods that are ‘prepacked for direct sale’ (PPDS) to give them more confidence in the food they buy.
Natasha’s Law requires food businesses to include full ingredients labelling on ‘pre-packed for direct sale’ (PPDS) foods, and where there are any allergens in the recipe, these must be clearly indicated by a unique typeface, e.g. bold.
This law will also have an impact on food items brought into school, for example at a cake sale or food items brought into school as birthday treats.
When is this happening?
It comes into force on the 1st October 2021 in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland and is commonly referred to as Natasha’s Law after the tragic death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who had an allergic reaction after eating a filled baguette which did not carry full ingredient and allergen labelling at the time.
Prepacked Food – This already must have full labelling, including the name of the food and a full ingredients list, with allergenic ingredients emphasised within it.
Non-prepacked Food – Any food that is not in packaging. Allergen information must still be provided but this can be done through other means, for example, a written list of allergens at point of service.
The 14 allergens are:
| celery | cereals containing gluten (such as barley and oats), | crustaceans (such as prawns, crabs and lobsters), | eggs | fish |
| lupin | milk | molluscs (such as mussels and oysters) | mustard | peanuts |
| sesame | soybeans | sulphur dioxide and sulphites (if they are at a concentration of more than ten parts per million) | tree nuts (such as almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, brazil nuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios and macadamia nuts). |
I appreciate this may feel like a lot of information to take in. In essence, it means that any food items brought into school, must include an allergen list. If the item is shop bought and prepacked, but the item/s have been removed from the packaging and separated, the allergen list must be included with the individual items.
More information regarding the changes can be found here: https://natashas-law.com/
If you need any further clarification regarding Natasha’s Law and the impact on our school, please do not hesitate to contact me.
House Points: Well done to the RED team who are our House Team winners this week!
| RED | PURPLE | BLUE | GREEN |
| 40 | 30 | 20 | 10 |
Finally, here are some FREE sessions that may be of interest from ACL Essex Community and Family Learning – Check out their Events page on Facebook for direct links to all sessions, or visit the website: aclessex.com/community-family-learning/
Have a great weekend everyone,
Kim
Kim Hall
Headteacher
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