Set the menu once. Not re-typed at every site.

The multi-site allergen trap

Catering at scale has a structural problem: the menu is designed centrally, but the allergen card is produced locally — re-typed from a recipe sheet, under service pressure, by whoever’s free. The most safety-critical document in the building is the one most exposed to human error, and it’s reproduced dozens of times across sites that never see each other.

When something changes — a reformulated sauce, a swapped supplier — the update has to reach every site and every card by hand. Miss one, and a card is quietly wrong. And if a customer, an Environmental Health Officer or an insurer asks you to prove a given dish at a given site was right on a given day, a binder of photocopies is a weak answer.

How PlateProof fits a catering operation

• Build the menu once, print it everywhere. Capture each dish from the recipe; the allergens are read and a named chef signs off. Cards print site-ready — no kitchen re-types anything.
• The great equaliser.Your newest hire, in any language, produces the same audit-ready, signed card as your head chef — because the standard lives in the system, not in one person’s memory.
• One named sign-off per card.Each card carries a real signature bonded to the source photo and timestamp. Whoever signs is accountable; you hold the evidence. (One signature, one card — never a bulk “approve all”.)
• Proof on demand, by site and date. A manager can see every signed card across sites and produce the photo-backed record in seconds — not reconstruct it from a ring binder.

The compliance backbone

Event and contract caterers carry the full weight of allergen law. The duty to provide accurate allergen information applies to loose and buffet food, not just packaged items; prepacked-for-direct- sale items fall under Natasha’s Law(in force 1 October 2021); and the Food Safety Act 1990 (s.21) due-diligence defence turns on what you can show. (Sources: FSA allergen guidance, food.gov.uk; the Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019; Food Safety Act 1990.) We unpack both in Natasha’s Law explained and how to prove allergen due diligence.

Where it sits

PlateProof is allergen compliance softwarebuilt on evidence rather than labelling alone. If you’re weighing it against your current binder or spreadsheet, see paper records vs allergen software. It doesn’t certify your food or guarantee safety — it makes your declaration accurate, evidenced and producible. The proof, not the promise.