recipe-version-control-and-allergen-redeclaration

---
name: recipe-version-control-and-allergen-redeclaration
description: Keeps a dated version history of every recipe, and the moment an ingredient is added, removed or swapped, checks whether it touches one of the 14 mandated allergens and forces a re-declaration before the dish goes out under its old description. It treats "we changed the sauce" as a compliance event, not a kitchen note. Use every time a recipe changes, especially a PPDS-labelled product.
---

# Every recipe change, dated, and the allergen check it triggers

Give this a recipe's previous and new version. Get back exactly what changed, whether any of the 14 mandated allergens moved because of it, and what has to happen to the menu, notice or label before the new version is served.

## What it does

1. **Diff the two versions line by line**, added, removed, or quantity changed, dated. A changelog with no date is a memory someone will eventually get wrong.
2. **Check every added or removed ingredient against the 14 mandated allergens**: celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphur dioxide and sulphites (over ten parts per million), and tree nuts, "including additives, processing aids and any other substances... in the final product."
3. **Where an allergen changed, flag re-declaration everywhere it's stated**: the menu, any written notice, the staff script, and any printed PPDS label.
4. **Apply the PPDS rule where it bites hardest.** Since Natasha's Law, PPDS food "will be required to label it with the name of the food and a full ingredients list", allergens "emphasised within this list." A changed recipe makes every unsold unit under the old label wrong the moment it's used.
5. **Hold the old version live until the new one is fully updated everywhere**: menu, notice, script and any printed label.

## Then it checks

1. Every ingredient added or removed between versions is listed, dated.
2. Each was checked against the full 14-allergen list, not a shortened one.
3. Any allergen whose presence changed has a re-declaration task for every place it's stated.
4. Any PPDS-labelled product with a changed recipe has label reprinting flagged as blocking.
5. No recipe is "live" on the new version while any re-declaration task is still open.

Any check fails: redo once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules

- Public information only. Never invent a fact, number or quote, or an allergen presence not in the supplied ingredient data.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is.
- Never mark a version "live" while a required re-declaration is still outstanding.
- Never treat a quantity-only change as requiring re-declaration unless it crosses the ten parts per million sulphite threshold.
- Working document for the owner to check against their own recipes and current FSA guidance, and a food safety adviser before relying on it with customers. Not food safety advice.

## Built from
- Food Standards Agency, "PPDS allergen labelling changes for restaurants, cafes and pubs", https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prepacked-for-direct-sale-ppds-allergen-labelling-changes-for-restaurants-cafes-and-pubs/prepacked-for-direct-sale-ppds-allergen-labelling-changes-for-restaurants-cafes-and-pubs, read 4 November 2026: confirms the 1 October 2021 Natasha's Law PPDS label requirement, behind steps 3 and 4.
- Food Standards Agency, "Allergen guidance for food businesses", https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/allergen-guidance-for-food-businesses/allergen-guidance-for-food-businesses, published 2 April 2020, updated 17 July 2026, read 4 November 2026: the 14-allergen list and additives scope, behind step 2.

# recipe-version-control-and-allergen-redeclaration

## You are given
A recipe's previous and new version, each a full ingredient list with quantities, and the effective date of the new version. Whether the dish is sold PPDS, non-prepacked, or both. The current menu wording, allergen notice wording, and staff script, where they exist. Whether any PPDS label stock for the old version is unsold.

## Produce
Write into a `./recipe-version-output/` folder:

1. `version-diff.csv`: `dish_name`, `change_date`, `ingredient_name`, `change_type` (`added`, `removed`, `quantity_changed`, `unchanged`), `old_quantity`, `new_quantity`.
2. `allergen-impact.csv`: `dish_name`, `ingredient_name`, `change_type`, `allergen_affected` (one of the 14 or `none`), `presence_before`, `presence_after` (`present`/`absent`), `redeclaration_required` (`yes` whenever before and after differ).
3. `redeclaration-tasks.csv`: `dish_name`, `location_to_update` (`menu or chalkboard`, `written allergen notice`, `staff script`, `PPDS label`), `current_wording_verbatim`, `required_change`, `status` (`open`/`done`, only `done` with a dated confirmation supplied).
4. `ppds-stock-flag.csv`: `dish_name`, `old_version_ppds_stock_unsold`, `action` (`withdraw and relabel` when stock is unsold and redeclaration is required, else `none required`).
5. `gaps.md` - numbered list of: every `redeclaration_required: yes` row; every `status: open` task; every `withdraw and relabel` row; any dish live on the new version with tasks still open.

## Rules
- Codex diffs, checks against the 14-allergen list, and tracks tasks to closure. It never marks a task `done` without a dated confirmation, and never infers allergen presence from an ingredient's name alone.
- A recipe version is never recorded as live while any of its own tasks are `open`.
- Quantity-only changes are not allergen-affecting unless sulphite content crosses ten parts per million, calculated explicitly, not assumed.
- Unsold PPDS stock is always flagged for action when allergen content has changed; never left as background fact alone.
- British English, GBP, DD Month YYYY dates. No em dashes.
- Every file ends with: this is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own recipes and current Food Standards Agency guidance, and for a food safety adviser to check before it is relied on with customers. It is not food safety advice.

## Return
The absolute path and row count of each file. Every ingredient change, dated and typed. Every allergen affected, before and after. Every open task, by dish. Any dish flagged for PPDS withdrawal. Any dish found live with tasks still open, reported as an error. The `gaps.md` item count.