Natasha's Law, prep labels and point of sale - all on one device at Fusion Cafe
The daily reality of a grab and go counter
“If I didn't have the Labl.it device, I would be so much slower at my job.”
David, Catering Assistant at Fusion Cafe
Fusion Cafe serves the University of Southampton Science Park, which is home to over 100 science, tech and engineering companies, and over 1,100 collective employees. That adds up to a pretty busy lunch rush, with fridges stocked up with pre-packaged food first thing in the morning and cleared out by early afternoon.
That's exactly why Natasha's Law applies, every one of the sandwiches and baguettes is prepacked for direct sale (PPDS), and every one of them legally needs a full ingredients list with the 14 major allergens emphasised.
For a small team working against the clock, that's a serious amount of information to get right.
The problem
Compliance you can't cut corners on, in the busiest hour of the day
PPDS labelling doesn't scale by hand. A full ingredients list per product, with clearly emphasised allergens, is far more than anyone can reasonably write on a label, and the consequences of getting it wrong aren't just administrative, they're a real customer safety issue.
Fusion also had a second problem, further down the counter. Selling products without a printed label meant hunting for them on the till.
Two jobs, both slow, and both happening in the same short window. Getting compliant labels onto the food and that food through the till before the end of lunchtime.
The solution
One device, from kitchen to counter
Fusion's products live in the back office. With Labl.it, they enter ingredients and allergens once, and the system handles the rest, including emphasising the 14 declarable allergens in bold and underlined on every label that's printed. That same setting can be applied to any other field the team wants to stand out, which means that nobody on shift has to remember which words need highlighting, because the machine already knows.
The same device covers prep as well. Switching between prep and sale takes a single tap, so the team can print an expiry label in the kitchen and a complaint PPDS label at the packing bench in seconds.
David especially loves how easy it is to get the hang of;
“It's so easy to use because it's got categories, and we can break down into prep and sale. If you can't find anything, it's got a search function so most of the time I just find myself tapping in the search and figuring everything out.”
David, Catering Assistant at Fusion Cafe
Because Labl.it prints EAN-13 barcodes onto sale labels, the label a customer reads for product information, ingredients, allergens and price is the same label the till recognises. Scanning the barcodes with the Labl.it device automatically brings that product up, ready to print another label with a tap.
The result
Compliant mornings, faster lunches
With PPDS labelling, prep labelling and point of sale labels printed from a single device, Fusion Cafe has streamlined their entire operation.
For David and the rest of the team, the difference is measured in how quickly he can serve someone without needing to know the till inside out.
“I'm not so good on the till, and I would have to go through all these till categories to try to find anything. But with the Labl.it device, I can just take it, scan it, and it's there.”
David, Catering Assistant at Fusion Cafe
Try Labl.it free or book a demo today.
