By Ged Cairns, Head of Auto ID at Brother UK
Natasha’s Law has significant implications for all businesses that produce foods pre-packaged for direct sale (PPDS) to customers on-site. Together with putting customers at risk, those who don’t comply face the possibility of large fines and reputation damage, with longer-lasting consequences for customer numbers.
It’s created a product labelling challenge for food retailers. But while our research found that all agree the regulation will make consumers with food allergies feel safer, many say they are finding it challenging to adapt their labelling processes.
Handwritten labels open you up to the risk of human error, and pre-printed labels can be costly and limit your ability to make any changes to an ingredient list – neither provide the speed, accuracy and flexibility of a digital, compliant food labelling solution.
Brother has a strong track record of delivering tailored systems for the food service and hospitality sectors and creating a solution for full ingredients labelling for PPDS food needn’t be complex or expensive.
Our compact desktop devices make it easy to create long-lasting, high-resolution labels for allergen content, ingredients, barcodes, branding, pricing and expiry dates quickly and accurately, using thermal print technology without the need for inks or toners. For those with multiple sites, our solutions also integrate with menu management systems
Depending on setup and menu size, we offer businesses three types of solutions: a complete standalone solution with pre-built designs and pre-stored menus, a wirelessly connected tablet and app from one of our specialist software partners, or a multipurpose PC-based solution that can be used alongside our free P-Touch label design and print software.
One business benefitting from our multipurpose solution is café Common Ground, in Altrincham in the North West.
After the business started offering takeaway PPDS food for the first time, they used our Brother TD-4520DN professional network desktop label printer, alongside our free P-touch Editor software, which enabled them to design and print custom food labels, alongside logos, images and barcodes. They simply connected the device to a laptop and printed off batches of labels for that day’s products.
To discover more about how to integrate food labelling solutions into your business, visit www.brother.co.uk/food-labelling