Natasha’s Law

The food and information amendment (Natasha’s Law) will come into effect in October 2021.

It will require businesses to provide a full list of ingredients and allergen labelling on prepacked food for direct sale.

This new law is being introduced to protect allergy suffers. You may have read about PPDS (Prepacked for Direct Sale) before, these items will need to clearly show the name of the food along with the full ingredients.

All allergenic ingredients will need to be emphasised (bold, italic or a different colour). PPDS foods are foods which have been packed on site before being offered for sale. Items such as sandwiches, baguettes, prepared salads, items from a deli counter that have been prepacked and items such as sausages and burgers sold from your butcher counter.

You will need to make sure that your existing labelling hardware/software is capable of listing the ingredients and highlighting the allergies.

You may already have the correct hardware/software but you may need to look at ordering larger label stock to support the extra text.

Open Retail Solutions are authorised partners of both Avery Berkel and Bizerba and as such can offer help and guidance on the scales and put you in touch with the right people to help further.

Avery Berkel Logo

Bizerba Logo

Open Retail Solutions EPOS system has the option to print to zebra desktop printers.

Each of these can print multiple label formats so you can be sure that we can help you find the best suitable printer for the job.

Our software allows you the highlight text bold so all allergens can be highlighted correctly.

Once you are happy that you have carried out a review of your hardware/software you will need to make sure that your staff have been fully trained on the list of allergies so that they can offer guidance to your consumers.

Below are the 14 allergens that must be highlighted on your food labels.

Further information on Natasha’s Law can be found here https://natashas-law.com/

How to keep your EPoS equipment clean during Coronavirus

Conronavirus Cleaning

How to keep your EPoS equipment clean – Manufacturer advice for cleaning your POS equipment during during Coronavirus.

Wiping with 75% alcohol on the aluminium chassis, plastics covers and display is effective to clean these surfaces with no problems to the POS materials.

We recommend you use the following method:

  • Turn off your POS system & Credit Card Terminal completely, including peripherals’ power, and unplug the power cables if possible.
  • Get your cleaning material, such as lint-free cloth or cotton swab, prepared with cleaning solutions (e.g. 75% isopropyl alcohol).
  • DO NOT use any cleaning solutions that contains Acetone, Nitric acid or Ammonia.
  • Apply cleaning solution only on the cleaning material.
  • Gently wipe the exterior surface and clean your POS system & Pin Pad in a well ventilated environment.

Thank you for reading How to keep your EPoS equipment clean.

We hope this helps.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update

Coronavirus Hand Washing

We would like to reassure our customers that we plan to operate as close to business as usual as possible during this time of crisis with the Coronavirus.

We will be following the ongoing advice from the Government as closely as we can and systems are already in place to allow our team to work remotely should this be required in the coming days.

We will continue to post updates on our social media channels if anything changes, so please check these regularly.

Our social media channels are as follows:

https://www.facebook.com/openretailsolutions/
https://twitter.com/epossupplier
https://www.linkedin.com/company/open-retail-solutions-limited/

You can still contact us on the office number as usual, this number is 0115 9677 439.

If the office does close you will be able to contact us via email: support@openretailsolutions.co.uk and by mobile 07932 450 471.

Thank you from all the team at Open Retail Solutions.

FRA/FARMA Award for Associate Member of the Year 2020!

FRA/FARMA Awards 2020

OPEN RETAIL SOLUTIONS WINS NATIONAL FARM RETAIL AWARD

Open Retail Solutions has won Associate Member of the Year in a national award ceremony which celebrates the cream of the crop in the farm retail industry.

Open Retail Solutions was announced as one of the winners across seven categories in the prestigious awards organized by the Farm Retail Association (FRA) which was formed in 1979.

The Farm Retail Awards are the only awards to be judged by fellow farm retailers and celebrate the best farm shops, farm cafés and restaurants, farmers’ markets and trade suppliers in the country.

Chairman Rob Copley said: “What a terrific evening, celebrating the very best of farm retailers in the industry. The competition was tough, the calibre was high and to win one of the six awards is real accolade and testament to the gold-standard quality of the business.”

David Seville (Left) & Richard Ball (Right) accepting the award.

Awards included the ‘Rising Star Award’ which champions newcomers to the industry. The Lifetime Achievement Award recognises an individual who has made a lasting impression on the industry. Other categories include: Large Farm Shop of the Year (turnover over £1.5m); Small Farm Shop of the Year (turnover under £1.5m); Farmers’ Market of the Year; Farm Café/Restaurant of the Year; Trade Supplier Member of the Year.

The award dinner was part of the annual industry conference at the Nottingham Belfry, which features a fresh line up of fantastic guest speakers who will deliver talks on Wednesday 4 March.

Pat Whelan from James Whelan Butchers in Ireland will speak about building a successful butchery business and former Countryfile producer and Radio 4 Farming Today presenter Anna Jones will talk media coverage.

Paul Chamberlain who’s the Commercial Director of the Association of Convenience will explore key trends in food retail and Susan Hallam MBE will advise on how to build a social media audience.

The event will round off with a “Game Changer Workshop” by John Stanley – a leading retail specialist – who will share trends, ideas and solutions from his work around the world, tailored for a UK market.

This will be the first conference and award dinner to be organized by new managing agents Yorkshire Agricultural Society which took over the running of the association in the summer.

The FRA is open to thousands of independent retailers across the UK and offers its members support, training, workshops and open days.

We have been shortlisted for a Farm Retail Association Award

The Farm Retail Association Awards are held annually and we are on the shortlist for the Trade Supplier Of The Year Award 2020.

The awards take place as part of the annual Farm Retail Association / FRA conference, and this year are being held at The Nottingham Belfry, Mellors Way, Nottingham, NG8 6PY on Monday the 2nd to Wednesday the 4th of March 2020.

We have been a FRA/FARMA member now for many years, it’s a great community to be part of.

Farm Shops are one of the core sectors that we work with, and we provide our customers with seamless integrations with scales, weigh plates, weigh labellers and integrated card payments. All this along with data analysis which pushes businesses forward and achieve real growth.

Well done to all the other Farm Retail Association Award nominees, and good luck!

If you are interested in an EPoS solution for your business, contact us today!