Food Labelling Laws for Curry Takeaway Businesses

Which labelling rules actually apply to a takeaway

The labelling obligations on a curry takeaway depend entirely on how the food reaches the customer, and getting this distinction right is the single most important step. Food that a member of staff cooks to order and hands over unwrapped, or wraps in front of the customer at the point of sale, counts as non-prepacked (loose) food. For that food you are not required to print a full label, but you must still make the allergen information available. By contrast, food you package before the customer chooses it, on the same premises from which you sell it, is Prepacked for Direct Sale (PPDS) and must carry a full ingredients label under what is commonly called Natasha's Law.

Most curry takeaways sit in the first category for their hot menu: the biryani or bhuna is dished up on demand. But the moment you fill a chiller with pre-boxed samosas, onion bhajis, raita pots or ready-to-grab meal deals, those items become PPDS and the labelling burden changes completely.

What a PPDS label must show

If any of your items are prepacked for direct sale, each package needs a label bearing:

• The name of the food (for example "Vegetable Samosa" rather than just "Samosa").
• A full ingredients list in descending order of weight.
• The 14 regulated allergens emphasised within that ingredients list, typically in bold, capitals or a contrasting colour so they stand out from the surrounding text.

The allergens must be named where they appear in the recipe, not relegated to a separate "contains" box divorced from the ingredients. For a lamb samosa that means spelling out the wheat flour in the pastry, and for a korma it means naming the milk, cream, almonds (a tree nut) and cashews if used.

Allergen information for food cooked to order

For your loose, made-to-order dishes the law does not demand a printed panel on every tub, but it does require that accurate allergen information is provided and that customers are told how to obtain it. In practice a compliant approach is a clearly signposted allergen matrix, a folder at the counter, or a statement such as "Ask our staff about allergens" combined with staff who can genuinely answer. Verbal information is permitted, but only if it is backed by a written source the customer can be referred to. A menu that stays silent on allergens and staff who guess is a common and serious failing.

Fourteen allergens must be tracked: cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk, tree nuts, celery, mustard, sesame, sulphur dioxide/sulphites, lupin and molluscs. Curry kitchens are unusually exposed here because ground almonds, cashew paste, mustard seed and oil, sesame, ghee, yoghurt, fish sauce in some pastes, and sulphites in certain spice blends and dried fruit all appear routinely.

Selling through apps and for delivery (distance selling)

When a customer orders through your website, a third-party delivery platform or over the phone, extra rules apply because they cannot see or ask about the food at the point of choosing it. Allergen information must be available at two stages: before the purchase is concluded (so on the menu listing, the app product page or given over the phone when ordering), and again when the food is delivered. The most reliable way to meet the second stage is to attach the allergen and, where relevant, ingredient information to the packaging or the accompanying paperwork so it arrives with the meal.

This means your entries on delivery platforms should not simply list dish names. Each product needs allergen tags kept genuinely up to date, and any recipe change must be reflected on the platform the same day it happens in the kitchen.

Additives, spice heat and honest description

Beyond allergens, general food labelling and fair-trading rules require that food is described accurately and not misleadingly. Colours frequently used in tandoori and tikka dishes, such as certain azo colourings, may trigger a mandatory warning about possible effects on children's activity and attention when they appear on a labelled product. If you sell prepacked jars of sauce or spice mixes, additives must be declared by their function and name or E number.

Descriptions matter too: labelling a dish "lamb" when it contains mutton or another meat, or implying a dish is vegetarian when ghee or fish-derived ingredients are present, breaches consumer protection rules quite apart from the allergen risk.

Weights, storage and shelf life on packaged goods

PPDS items sold from a chiller and any longer-life products carry further obligations. Chilled prepacked food generally needs a "use by" date and storage instructions, and you must be able to demonstrate the shelf life is safe. If you sell retail-style jars of pickle, chutney or cook-in sauce for customers to take home and use later, these are prepacked food and require the fuller labelling set including a durability date, business name and address, net quantity and storage conditions.

Keeping the system reliable

The labelling regime only works if the underlying recipe information is controlled. Build an ingredient specification for every dish, record the allergens from each component including bought-in pastes and blends, and re-check whenever a supplier or product changes because reformulation by a supplier can silently introduce an allergen. Nominate someone responsible for updating labels, the counter allergen matrix and the app listings together, so the three never drift apart. Keep the supporting documents, delivery notes and product specifications, because an environmental health officer will expect to see how you arrived at the information you give customers. Treating labelling as a live system rather than a one-off task is what keeps a takeaway both legal and trusted.