Allergen menu QR code for restaurants

What should an allergen QR code open?

The current matrix for the dishes you sell today, not a PDF from last menu change. A QR code that opens a file nobody updates is worse than a folder behind the bar, because the guest trusts the phone. When a recipe changes, the page the code opens has to change the same day.

PPDS rules cover food packed on site before the guest orders it — the grab-and-go box — and require a label with the 14 allergens emphasised. A QR code is not that label. The matrix is for the menu conversation and for dishes you finish to order. Do not point a QR at a PPDS product and skip the label.

The 14 regulated allergens are the list. “May contain” is your risk assessment of the kitchen, not a slogan. If the fryer is shared, say so on the dish that uses it. A blanket “ask your server” with no matrix is the page that fails a serious guest and a serious officer.

• 14 allergens, per dish, current.
• PPDS food still needs a label. The QR does not replace it.
• One person owns the update when the specials board changes.
• Print the same matrix. The QR is a copy, not a second recipe.

FSA: food allergy and intolerance. FSA: PPDS allergen labelling.

Does a QR code replace the allergen label?

The code has to open the matrix that matches the menu on the board tonight. A PDF exported in March is a lie in July if the sauce changed. One person owns the update, and the update happens before service, not after a guest has already eaten.

The 14 allergens are the legal list in the Food Information Regulations 2014. A shared fryer is a real “may contain” on the dishes that use it. “May contain” on every cell is not an assessment.

Prepacked for direct sale food — the boxed sandwich you packed before the order — needs a label with the allergens emphasised. The QR code does not replace that label. Pointing a code at a PPDS product and skipping the sticker is the failure. The label rules are the Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019.

Print the same matrix the code opens, so a phone with no signal and a member of staff are looking at one version. Specials that are not on the matrix are not on sale until they are. A photograph of a chalkboard is not a matrix.

System Hub’s allergen chart is the page the code should open, and it is the same chart the kitchen edits. Do not keep a second spreadsheet “for the website”.

Test the code from a phone that is not on the office Wi-Fi before you print the table cards. If it asks for a login, guests cannot open it. If it opens last month’s PDF, do not print. The URL on the card and the URL in the kitchen should be the same address, so a reprint is not a second version.