On 17 July 2016 a fifteen-year-old girl bought a baguette at Heathrow Airport. She was allergic to sesame. She read the packet before she ate it. The packet did not say sesame. But sesame was baked into the bread, on purpose. Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died on the plane to Nice. Nothing about that sandwich was against the law.
Five years later, the law changed. People call it Natasha’s Law.
This is a story about a label. It is worth reading for anyone who makes food, packs food or sells food — anywhere. A label is not paperwork. For some people it is the only way to know if the food will hurt them.
Here it is as simple questions and answers.
What happened to Natasha
Who was Natasha?
A fifteen-year-old girl who checked her food and still died. Everything here comes from the coroner’s official report. A coroner is the officer who finds out how someone died. His report is number 2018-0279, signed by Dr Sean Cummings on 8 October 2018.
Natasha was travelling to Nice with her father and a friend. She was allergic to sesame. The coroner wrote: “She bought a baguette after checking the ingredients.” She had eaten at that shop before. She trusted it. She ate the bread on the plane. She became very ill in the air and died in hospital soon after landing.
What was in the bread?
Sesame. It was put there on purpose. It was not written anywhere. The coroner’s words are plain: “The baguette contained unlabelled sesame at a ratio of 2.41% expressly commissioned by Pret.”
Read that again. The sesame was not dust from another machine. It was not an accident. Somebody chose it, ordered it and paid for it. It was a real ingredient. And the packet said nothing about it.
Why did the packet say nothing?
Because of an old exception in the rules. If a shop packed the food in its own kitchen and sold it in its own shop, the food did not count as “packed food”. So it did not need an ingredients list at all.
The exception was written for small bakers. Think of a village shop wrapping six cakes by hand. But the same words also covered a big chain wrapping sandwiches in a room behind the counter. No list was required, so no list was printed.
What did the coroner say?
That the exception was being used to get around the rules. He pointed at the exact rule and said it “allows for food outlets to avoid full food labelling requirements” — whether they make a few items, or, as in this case, “over 200 million items”.
Then he wrote the sentence that changed the law: “I was left with the impression that the ‘local kitchens’ were in fact a device to evade the spirit of the regulation.”
When a coroner writes this kind of report, the people who receive it must reply within 56 days. By law. This report went to the head of the shop, to two medicine bodies, and to the government minister in charge of food. The minister was the one who changed the law.
The law that came after
What is Natasha’s Law?
A rule that closed the old exception. From 1 October 2021, food packed and sold in the same place must carry a proper label.
“Natasha’s Law” is the name people use. It is not the name written in the law books. Each part of the United Kingdom passed its own version, and all four started on the same day: England in 2019, Wales in 2020, Northern Ireland in 2020 and Scotland in 2021.
What does it ask for?
The name of the food, and a full list of ingredients, printed on the pack. Inside that list, the allergens must stand out.
The law says the label must be “directly on the package or on a label attached to the package”. That matters. A folder at the till is not enough. A sign on the wall is not enough. A code you scan with a phone is not enough. It must be on the pack, where the person holding it can read it.
Which foods does it cover?
Food that a business packs and sells in the same place. The sandwich made in the back and sold at the front. The salad box at a food counter. The cake in a bakery box. The tub at a deli. The pot at a market stall.
Food that arrives already sealed from a factory was always covered by older rules. Those packs have needed a full ingredients list since 2014. Natasha’s Law filled the hole underneath them.
What happens if a business gets it wrong?
It is a crime, and there is no top limit on the fine. The old wording says “level 5”, which used to mean £5,000. A law passed in 2012 removed that ceiling. A court can now order “a fine of any amount”.
Local council food officers check this. So do port health officers, who check food coming in through ports and airports.
What an allergen actually is
What is a food allergen?
A food that makes some people seriously ill, even in a small amount. This is not the same as not liking a food, and it is not the same as a stomach upset.
In a bad reaction the throat can swell and close. Breathing stops. Doctors call this anaphylaxis. It can happen in minutes. That is what happened to Natasha.
How many allergens must a UK label name?
Fourteen. They are fixed by law. You do not decide them yourself. You check your recipe against the list.
Does every country use the same list?
No. The lists are different, and that surprises people. The United Kingdom names fourteen. The United States names nine. India names eight.
So a label that is complete and correct in one country can be missing an allergen in another. Sesame is a good example. It was added to the American list only in 2023. It is not on the Indian list at all. If your food travels, check the list of the country where it will be eaten, not the one you know best.
Is a small amount safe?
Not always. The sesame in Natasha’s bread was 2.41%. That is a small share of a sandwich. It was enough to kill her.
This is the part that is easy to get wrong. A producer thinks in recipe percentages. An allergic person does not have that choice. For them the question is only yes or no.
How to write it on the pack
Where must the allergen be written?
Inside the ingredients list, and it must stand out from the words around it.
The law uses the word “emphasised”. It means the allergen must look different from the rest of the list. You can use bold letters, CAPITAL LETTERS, a different colour, or an underline. Any of these is fine. What is not fine is a list where the allergen looks like every other word.
Is a “Contains: milk, wheat” box enough?
No. Not on its own. This is the most common mistake on a label, and it is worth understanding properly.
The law allows a “contains” line only “in the absence of a list of ingredients”. In plain words: that box is a backup, for labels that have no ingredients list at all. Almost every packed food does have an ingredients list. So the backup does not apply, and the real job is to make the allergens stand out inside the list.
You are still allowed to print the box. Many brands do, and it is helpful. Just do not treat it as the whole job.
So when can I use a “contains” line?
When the pack genuinely has no ingredients list. That is rare. The usual example is some alcoholic drinks, which do not always need a full list.
If you are unsure, look at your own pack. Is there an ingredients list on it? If yes, the allergens belong inside it.
Do I mark it every time, or just once?
Every time it appears. The guidance is clear: allergens “must be emphasised every time they appear in the ingredients list”.
Milk is where this usually slips. One list can carry milk solids, butter, whey and casein. All four come from milk. All four must stand out, not just the first one.
What if my ingredient has a different name?
Then you must also print the allergen name, so the shopper can see it. Many everyday ingredients hide an allergen inside a different word.
The food authority gives these examples: write “tofu (soya)”, “tahini paste (sesame)”, “whey (milk)”. The same idea covers many kitchen names. Ghee, khoya, paneer and curd all come from milk. Atta, maida, suji and rava all come from wheat. Til is sesame.
A shopper with an allergy should not have to know your kitchen words. Put the allergen name in brackets and the problem disappears.
Some bought-in ingredients are mixtures. A spice blend, a sauce, a seasoning. You must know what is inside them. As one example, many brands of asafoetida (hing) are blended with wheat flour. If you do not ask your supplier, that wheat never reaches your label.
Can I add a line telling people where to look?
Yes, and it is a good idea. A short helper line such as “Allergen advice: for allergens, see ingredients in bold” is allowed.
It is voluntary. It costs nothing. It tells a worried shopper exactly where to look, which is the whole point of the label.
“May contain”, “free from” and vegan
Can I write “may contain nuts”?
Yes, but only when the risk is real. This warning is for accidental traces, not for ingredients you put in on purpose.
Use it after you have actually checked your factory. The official advice is that it should be used only where the risk “is real and cannot be removed”. And name the allergen: “may contain peanuts” is useful, “may contain nuts” is vague.
Should I put it on everything, just to be safe?
No. That makes things worse, not safer. It feels safe. It is not.
If every packet says “may contain”, allergic shoppers have nothing left to choose from. Many then start ignoring the warning altogether. A warning printed everywhere stops being a warning.
Can “may contain milk” go on a “milk free” pack?
Never. The two sentences say opposite things on the same packet.
A “free from” claim is a promise. You are telling an allergic person the food is safe for them. You can only make that promise if you control it properly, with separate storage and proper cleaning. If you cannot promise it, do not print it.
Can “may contain milk” go on a vegan pack?
Yes, and this surprises people. The two labels answer two different questions.
“Vegan” describes the recipe: no animal ingredients were used. It is not a promise about traces from the factory. So if your line also runs dairy, “vegan” plus “may contain milk” is honest and allowed. “Dairy free” plus “may contain milk” is not.
One number worth remembering: a “gluten free” claim allows a maximum of 20 mg/kg of gluten. It is the one free-from claim with a figure attached to it.
What happens next
Is anything else changing?
Yes. “May contain” may get actual numbers behind it. At the moment any producer can print those words, and nobody has to prove anything.
Food safety bodies are now working on agreed limits, so that the warning means something measurable. This is being discussed internationally during 2026. It is not a duty yet. But the direction is clear: in future, “may contain” will need to be earned, not printed just in case.
What should I do this week?
Take one of your own packets and read it like a worried parent. That is the whole test, and it takes ten minutes.
Can you find the ingredients list? Do the allergens jump out, or do you have to hunt for them? Is every one of them marked, every time? Do you actually know what is inside your bought-in spice mix? If any answer is no, you have found something worth fixing before your next print run.
Before you print your next pack
Nine things worth checking while the label is still a file on a computer.
- Check your recipe against all fourteen allergens, one by one
- Put the allergens inside the ingredients list, not only in a box below it
- Make them stand out — bold, capitals, colour or underline
- Mark them every time they appear, not just the first time
- Name the exact nut, and keep peanut separate from other nuts
- Add the allergen name in brackets after kitchen words — ghee (milk), til (sesame), atta (wheat)
- Ask your suppliers what is inside mixed ingredients like spice blends and sauces
- Use “may contain” only when the risk is real, and name the allergen
- Never put a “free from” claim and a “may contain” warning for the same thing on one pack
There is no logo to download for any of this. There is no certificate to hang on the wall. Allergen safety lives in how your ingredients list is written, which is why it is so easy to lose when artwork is redrawn or translated. It is also why it is worth checking before you print, and not after.
Natasha did everything right. She read the label. The label was the part that failed her.
Check Your Pack Before You Invest in Packaging
Copago Label Maker reads your pack copy and checks it against the labelling rules of the market you are selling into — allergens included — and shows you the rule behind every finding.
Where this comes from
- The coroner’s Report to Prevent Future Deaths, ref 2018-0279, Dr Sean Cummings, 8 October 2018 — the source of every detail about Natasha’s death
- The Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019 — “Natasha’s Law” in England. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland passed matching rules
- The Food Information Regulations 2014 — the ingredients list duty, who enforces it, and the fine
- Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 — the fourteen allergens, and the rule that they must stand out inside the list
- Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, section 85 — the law that removed the limit on the fine
- Food Standards Agency technical guidance on allergen labelling — including the “free from” and vegan rules
- Food Standards Agency, Allergen labelling for food manufacturers — the “tofu (soya)” examples and the helper line
- US FDA, Food Allergies — the nine American allergens and the date sesame was added
- FSSAI Labelling and Display Regulations, allergen rule 5(14), September 2025 compendium — the eight allergens named in India
This article explains the rules in general terms. It is not legal advice. If you are unsure about your own product, check with your food safety adviser or your local food authority before you print.
