The days have gone by when chefs could just produce a meal to picture perfect standards and not worry about what was on the plate or if it could potentially kill someone.

I grew up in that world: I did my apprenticeship in the 1980’s, learning my craft from what I would call classic ‘old school chefs’, who would turn out the most amazing dishes consistently, day in day out, with no care in the world for any allergic reactions.

Those days are well and truly over, now we have legislation in place that dictates it’s not as easy as it was in the 80’s. Food allergens have arrived, and they are here to stay. Although I believe food allergies have always been around, they were never really diagnosed or treated as allergies - just disguised as food poisoning.

Food standards agency claim that there are 2.6 million people in the UK that suffer from food hypersensitivity, and worldwide between 1-4% of the population have a food allergy. It is important that we protect these people from harm.

 Using food allergen software is a key component in making the process as easy as possible to combat. Here at Allergen Checker we believe in the system we have created. I had the idea back in 2013 when I heard about the new Allergen legislation coming out in 2014. I wanted to create a safe environment for customers but also in turn make it as easy as possible for chefs to label their dishes.

 The food standards agency created a basic form that you could fill in and communicate with your staff about the ingredients within each dish. This process was good to a point: how often did the allergy sheet get updated? Was the transfer of information accurate from one person to another? We have seen some very high-profile cases over the past few years where people have died from mis-communication or total lack of ingredient listings.

 This is why it is even more important to use food allergen software to help your staff communicate with your customers. Allergen Checker software produces a menu of your dishes that you have stored within the system. Enabling you to present a detailed menu to your customers highlighting all known allergens and also full ingredient listings. It is much simpler and presentable than many restaurants I have been to, as I have in the past been given a folder with many charts, forms and labels from packaging for me to work out what I can actually eat safely. It really does not fill me with confidence that the food which arrives on my plate is safe for me to eat.

When using our food allergen software, you are able to create a full ingredient label for Pre-packed products for direct sale. (From 1st October 2021 see our article “helping businesses stay compliant with Natasha’s law")

This is a very useful tool to create a label that will comply with the new legislation - again enabling your customers to make an informed decision on what they consume.

Here at Allergen Checker, we are committed in keeping your customers safe and giving your staff the tools to communicate known allergens within the food they serve. 

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