Andromeda Helpdesk

Why do you need to worry about allergens?

Many people have food allergies today and following the tragic loss of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse in 2016, her parents have been fighting to change the law to protect allergy sufferers.

In Summer 2021 the law is changing and businesses will have to take additional steps to ensure the food they serve is handled in a way that will ensure allergy sufferers can order safely.

So, How do you prepare?

The obvious starting point is to ensure you know all of the ingredients in each of your menu items.

Once you know the ingredients you can create an allergen list to highlight which of the 14 allergens are present in each product.

1. Research the UK Government regulations on their website 

There is a lot of information available to you regarding the 14 allergies that you must be aware of and highlight to your customers. You can find more information here.

2. Train your staff

While you can take many steps to ensure you label the food correctly, your staff are the front line and need to understand the law, what the 14 allergens are and how to deal with a customer who informs them of an allergy.

The chefs in particular must be trained to ensure they follow the correct processes to avoid any cross contamination while preparing the food.

Remember, As the Business Owner, you are legally responsible for your staff & all the food that is sold in your business

3. Utilise New Technology

As the shopping habits of your customers changes to be more digital, so should your processes.

To assist your customers who are ordering from your website, Andromeda have added the functionality into the portal enabling you to show the allergens of each dish and modifier so your customers can order from your site with the confidence that you have their safety in mind.

We include this on all of our websites at no extra charge making it easy for you to update and manage your menu.

4. Use the change in the law as an opportunity

Businesses who are ahead of the rule change who implement it correctly will encourage customers to choose them over their rivals.

There are around two million people in the UK who suffer from allergies with many finding it hard to buy food from takeaways due to the lack of allergy information available to them. As this is literally a life or death choice for some people, they are more likely to return to a business which they can trust.

So, by establishing your reputation as a restaurant that listens and understands the needs of allergy sufferers you can gain an advantage over your competitors.

So, How do you set the allergies?

After logging into the portal, go to the Product Management section and click on the product you want to update.

Then Click the Blue Manage Button. This opens the product in the 'Edit Mode' as seen below.

Click on the Blue Allergens button to open up the allergens pop up screen.

Here you have the 14 standard allergens for the UK in alphabetical order, simply select 'May Contain' or 'Does Contain' for each product based on your knowledge of the ingredients.

NOTE: "May Contain" is used for instances when you are not 100% sure, for example if you buy frozen chips which are made in a factory that also makes other items, they may claim it "May Contain Nuts"

Once you have set the correct allergy information for the product, click save, then the blue save changes button on the main product detail screen.

This information is then displayed on the product detail on your website giving your customers the confidence they need to order from you.

How to set allergies for your product modifiers?

In the portal, navigate to the Modifiers section, then to the item you wish to update.

As you did with the product section, click the Blue Manage button, then click the Blue Allergens button to bring up the Allergens screen.

Select the allergens that are relevant to this item and click Save, then Save Changes on the next screen.

Any modifier that has allergy information will be displayed with an i, when you click the i, it will then display the allergy information for this item.

** Please note, that for legal reasons, Andromeda are     unable to apply any allergy information to your website. 

This must be performed by the business owner of a senior manager only. **