The Food Standards Agency has launched a 12-month pilot of a standardised digital allergen record system with 500 food businesses across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, in what the agency describes as the most significant development in allergen management since the introduction of Natasha's Law in 2021.
The Digital Allergen Passport system — developed in collaboration with POS providers, menu management software companies and allergen specialists — allows operators to maintain a centrally verified record of every dish's allergen profile, updated in real time when recipes or ingredients change. The record is accessible to frontline staff via a tablet interface and can generate a printed summary for customers on request.
The FSA said the pilot had been designed in direct response to evidence that a significant proportion of allergen incidents in food businesses involved not a failure to declare allergens at labelling stage, but a breakdown in information transfer between kitchen, management and service staff — particularly in businesses with high staff turnover or multiple sites.
The problem the pilot addresses
Since the introduction of mandatory full allergen disclosure for pre-packed for direct sale (PPDS) foods under Natasha's Law, compliance among large operators has been broadly strong. However, the FSA's own surveillance data shows that allergen incidents at the point of service — where a customer asks a member of staff about a specific dish — remain stubbornly common.
In many cases, incidents occur because a recipe has been quietly changed (a supplier swap, a seasonal ingredient addition) without that change being formally recorded and communicated. The new system creates an audit trail from kitchen to counter.
"We know that most operators care deeply about getting this right," said the FSA's Director of Food Safety Policy in a statement. "The challenge has always been giving them the tools to do so consistently, across shifts, across sites, and when something changes at 4pm on a Friday."
What operators in the pilot get
The 500 participating businesses — a mix of independent restaurants, multi-site casual dining groups, contract caterers and workplace canteens — will receive:
- Free access to the Digital Allergen Passport platform for the duration of the pilot
- Training support from the FSA and its delivery partners
- A dedicated advisory contact for technical and compliance questions
- Anonymised benchmarking data showing how their allergen management compares with peers
In return, participants will submit quarterly data on how the system is being used and any incidents or near-misses that occur during the pilot period. The FSA will use this data to evaluate whether the system should be mandated more broadly or made available as a voluntary accreditation scheme.
Industry response
Initial industry response has been broadly positive. UK Hospitality said the pilot represented "a practical and proportionate approach" to improving allergen management, while the Anaphylaxis Campaign welcomed the focus on point-of-service information transfer, which it described as "the missing piece in the current framework."
Applications for the second cohort, should the pilot proceed to rollout, are expected to open in Q1 2027.