16th December 2021
Work already done to meet Natasha’s Law legislation offers the answer says Andrew Pond of Civica Saffron.
Under new regulations from April 2022, organisations in England with more than 250 employees, including contract caterers, local authorities and NHS Trusts, will be required to display calorie information to customers when choosing food items. This includes physical menus, online menus, food delivery platforms and food labels.
The Calorie Labelling (Out of Home Sector) (England) Regulations 2021 is designed to make it easier for consumers to make healthier choices when eating out.
Achieving compliance and enabling healthier choices
The challenge for caterers is in gathering all of the information needed to calculate calories for each individual menu item and then exporting that data to EPOS, labels, pre-order apps and other points of choice for customers.
It may seem like a daunting change but with Civica Saffron catering management software, it’s easy to meet the new requirements. All this information is already included in the system because it was updated in 2021 to help caterers meet the requirements of Natasha’s Law.
Saffron integrates data from supplier links (directly or via Erudus) to offer a wide range of information including costs, profitability, weight, allergen information, carbon value and calories. Nutrition data from McCance and Widdowson is also available.
Displaying calorie information
For added simplicity, data can be provided to EPOS and pre-order apps, exported to labelling suppliers as with Natasha’s Law and displayed on our Wellbeing Portal.
The portal, which is already being used by Civica customers including the Westmorland Family of businesses, includes a public-facing URL where users can access menu details from anywhere. It displays nutritional and allergen information to enable better, safer food choices – and has now been updated to include calorie information for the new regulations.
The Westmorland Family
With nearly one million customers viewing our menus, the portal has become so much more than a solution to ensure we’re compliant with the Food Information Regulations. Our customers are now confident that the choices they make suit their dietary requirements and preferences.
One platform, multiple outputs
Entering supplier information into Saffron once enables caterers to produce multiple outputs:
- Allergen information (Natasha’s Law)
- Calorie information
- Food Information Regulation compliance
- Dietary preferences
- Cost per item
- Recommended selling prices
- Profitability (including individual sites)
- Weight
- Brand protection
- HACCP compliance
- Image for consistent production
- Link to EPOS/pre-order app
- Defined yield from recipe
- Carbon value.