Greggs to “ramp up” food labelling

Greggs has announced plans to “ramp up” labelling on goods bought in store following the death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse.

The group’s chief executive, Roger Whiteside, said the bakery is introducing digital messages in stores informing customers who suffer from allergies to ask assistants for advice.

“Allergies have to be taken very seriously. The challenge in our business is that the bulk of what we sell is not in packets … how do you put an allergy message on a sausage roll?” said Whiteside.

The importance of labelling has come into the limelight following the death of 15-year-old Natasha, who was allergic to sesame and died on a flight after eating a baguette bought from a Pret A Manger at Heathrow airport.

Last week, Pret agreed to full ingredient labelling on all freshly made products. 

Pret chief executive, Clive Schlee, said: “I want to say again how deeply sorry we are for the loss of Natasha. I said we would learn from this tragedy and ensure meaningful changes happen.”

“I hope these measures set us on course to drive change in the industry so people with allergies are as protected and informed as possible. Nothing is more important to Pret right now.”

Greggs announced this morning a rise in sales by 7.3% over the summer period. 

“We were pleased with our trading performance during a period that included a long spell of hot weather, which made sales patterns more difficult to predict,” said the group in a trading update.

“This, and the resulting mix of sales led to a lower-than-normal trading margin in the first part of the quarter, offset by improved trading as we came into September. Overall our expectations for the full year outturn remain unchanged,” they added.

Shares in the group (LON: GRG) jumped 5% on the news.