PPDS stands for Pre-Packed for Direct Sale. These are foods prepared in your kitchen and sold to customers on the same premises — think homemade cakes in a café, sandwiches in a deli, or pastries in a bakery. These items must carry a label with the full ingredient list and allergens highlighted under Natasha's Law.

Are CompliChef Labels Natasha's Law compliant?

Yes. CompliChef Labels generates PPDS-compliant sale labels that include the full ingredient list with allergens automatically highlighted in bold, site address, use-by date and nutritional information (if available). Every label is Natasha's Law compliant out of the box.

How do I print Natasha's Law labels with CompliChef?

Tap "Sale Label" on the CompliChef Labels app, select your food item from your KitchenPortal menu, and the full ingredient list with allergens is auto-populated from your recipe data. Add the price and use-by date, then tap Print. The label prints in seconds to your Sunmi device. All allergens are automatically highlighted in bold.

Do allergens need to be manually entered on each label?

No. CompliChef Labels pulls all allergens directly from your KitchenPortal recipe data. You enter each recipe once in KitchenPortal (ingredients and allergens), and every label you print for that item is automatically correct. This eliminates the biggest source of allergen labelling errors — manual entry and transcription mistakes.

What if I change ingredients?

Update the recipe in KitchenPortal once, and every future label you print reflects the change immediately. New allergens are flagged, removed allergens are gone from the label. No need to remember to update a separate labelling system.

Can I print other label types besides Natasha's Law sale labels?

Yes. CompliChef Labels prints four label types: Allergen labels (for display), Use-by labels (for prepped food with automatic date calculation), Sale labels (full PPDS labels for Natasha's Law), and QR scan labels for traceability. All are designed for the kitchen floor.

What hardware do I need?

A Sunmi V3 label printer, bought outright for £310. It arrives pre-configured with CompliChef Labels installed and linked to your account — plug it in and start printing. Software updates are handled for you and every printer has a 12-month warranty. You can also buy a Sunmi Cloud Printer (£100) that prints from the Kitchen Portal app on your own phone or tablet.

How much do labels cost?

The Sunmi V3 label printer costs £310 to buy outright and it is yours to keep — no deposit and no onboarding fee. On a CompliChef ecosystem plan (from £39/month) you then buy label rolls as you need them; or choose Solo Labels at £30/month, which includes your own web dashboard and 500 labels delivered each month. There is no minimum contract.

⚖️ Natasha's Law Compliance

PPDS labels that
meet the law

Print allergen and ingredient labels in the Natasha's Law PPDS format, directly from your KitchenPortal recipe data. Full ingredient lists, allergens highlighted, use-by dates calculated — all in seconds.

Full ingredient list auto-populated from your recipes
Allergens automatically highlighted in bold
100% compliant with The Food Information Amendment (England) Regulations 2019
Pre-configured Sunmi label printer — just plug in and print

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📋 The Law

What is Natasha's Law?

Natasha's Law (The Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019) requires that all food prepared and packaged on-site for sale — called Pre-Packed for Direct Sale (PPDS) — must carry a label with:

Full list of ingredients
All 14 major allergens highlighted in bold
Net weight and energy (kcal)
Use-by or best-before date
Business name and address

Applies to any food business selling pre-packed items directly to the public:

☕

Cafés & Coffee Shops

Homemade cakes, pastries, sandwiches packed for takeaway

🥐

Bakeries & Delis

Bread, pastries, salads and prepared items for sale

🍽️

Restaurants & Takeaways

Grab-and-go items, boxed meals, pre-packed desserts

✨ How It Works

No manual entry, no errors

Most businesses manually type ingredients and allergens on each label — and mistakes happen. CompliChef Labels pulls ingredient data from your KitchenPortal recipes, so every label is automatically correct.

Enter each recipe once in KitchenPortal
Ingredients and allergens are stored with the recipe
When you print a label, all data pulls automatically
Change an ingredient → every future label reflects it instantly
Allergens highlighted in bold automatically

CompliChef Labels sale label detail screen

⚖️

Built for Natasha's Law (PPDS)

Every label prints the full ingredient list with allergens emphasised in bold, your site address, the use-by date and nutritional information where available — the label format set out in The Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019. The ingredient and allergen information comes from what you enter, and you remain responsible for it being complete and accurate.

⚠️ The Problem

Hand-written labels don't work

Many food businesses still rely on printed stickers and handwritten day dots or ingredient lists. Here's why that doesn't meet Natasha's Law and risks your business:

✏️

Human error

Handwriting is illegible, allergens are missed or spelled wrong, ingredients are incomplete or outdated.

⏰

Time-consuming

Each label takes minutes to write by hand. Scale this to dozens of items per day and you've lost hours to compliance.

❌

Non-compliant

Hand labels don't include full ingredients, allergens aren't always highlighted, font sizes are inconsistent — not legally compliant.

🔍

EHO liability

Environmental Health Officers expect to see proper, consistent labelling. Hand labels signal poor compliance and risk fines or enforcement action.

🚫

No audit trail

Hand labels leave no record of who applied them, when or why. You can't prove due diligence if someone has an allergic reaction.

📝

No consistency

Different staff apply labels differently. Monday's batch looks nothing like Tuesday's. Customers can't trust what they see.

❓ Common Questions

Natasha's Law FAQs

Answers to the questions we hear from food business owners about Natasha's Law compliance and CompliChef Labels.

Do I have to comply with Natasha's Law if I'm a small café?

Yes. Natasha's Law applies to all food businesses in England that sell pre-packed food directly to customers, regardless of size. A single café selling homemade cakes must comply just as much as a chain.

What counts as "pre-packed"?

Pre-Packed for Direct Sale (PPDS) is food prepared in your kitchen and packaged before being sold to a customer on the same premises. Examples: a sandwich in a box, a cake in a bag, a salad in a container. Food prepared and served directly (like a meal on a plate) is not PPDS.

What allergens must be on the label?

All 14 major allergens must be listed if present in the food. These are: Cereals containing gluten, Crustaceans, Eggs, Fish, Peanuts, Soybeans, Milk, Nuts, Celery, Mustard, Sesame, Sulphites, Lupin, and Molluscs.

What happens if I don't comply?

Environmental Health Officers have enforcement powers. Non-compliance can result in warnings, fines up to £20,000, or food business closure. More importantly, inadequate labelling puts customers with allergies at risk.

Can I use generic label printer software?

You can, but you'd need to manually enter ingredients and allergens every time, and update those labels manually when recipes change. This is error-prone and time-consuming. CompliChef integrates with your recipe database, so everything stays in sync automatically.

Can I use CompliChef Labels without KitchenPortal?

CompliChef Labels is designed to work alongside KitchenPortal, pulling ingredient and allergen data from your recipes. You can manually add items in Labels, but you won't get the full benefit of automated data sync.

🚀 Get Started

Natasha's Law compliance, starting today

Start your free 14-day trial. Nothing charged during the trial — cancel any time. Print your first Natasha's Law compliant label within hours.

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PPDS labels thatmeet the law