Environmental Health enforces the law:
Control Catering provides the solution

Easily manage:

Control Catering is the total
allergen solution for Caterers

Helping Caterers create recipes, incorporate them into bespoke menus, automatically manage and identify allergens, count calories, train staff, control kitchen costs and profit.

Automatically import food data from catering suppliers and track suppliers’ invoices and pricing changes.

Control Catering helps you to manage:

Allergens

  • Provide essential & legal information to staff and customers
  • Identifies allergens automatically from recipe to menu
  • Adjust recipes for customer lifestyle preferences
  • Identify and avoiding risk of cross-contamination

Recipes

  • Create recipes
  • Combine recipes
  • Consistency of food offerings, standards and portions
  • Saves time - lessens errors
  • Import into different menu templates
  • Embed menus directly on your own website

Calories

  • Automatically calculates calories in each dish
    (will be law soon – get ahead of the game!)
  • Dietary and health information to staff and customers

Training

  • Provides training material
  • Recipes with procedure pictures
  • Assists with staff assessment

Cost Control

  • Automatically costs dishes
  • Sets profit margins
  • Tracks changes to costs and updates selling prices
  • Menu costs for easy reference
  • Changeable VAT calculation

Suppliers

  • Pricing changes automatically updated to recipes
  • Compare pricing and quotes from different suppliers
  • Track supplier price increases and discounts
  • Import supplier data and invoices
Embed your menus directly in your website
like the below!

The above is an example of a menu entered into Control Catering with allergen and calorie information as part of each recipe that goes to make up the menu. Any changes to the recipe or to the supplier product automatically flow through to the customer facing online and printed menus

Want to know more? Book a free one-to-one demonstration
Book a free demo

Pricing

Plans for teams of all sizes

Think that you may need higher levels?
Talk to us about our Multi-Site Plan
(Price on application)

Small Caterers / Manufacturers

£300 / year
  • Features
    • Included Foods
      • Included Recipes
        • Included Suppliers and Costings
          • Included Team Members (Up to 4 users)
        • Menus and Recipe Groups
          • Included Menus and Recipe Groups (1)
            • Included Recipe Courses (5)
              • Included Menu Layouts (1)
                • Included External Menus (1)
                  • Included Print Label Layouts (unlimited)
                • Support
                  • Included Help Tips on Every Page
                    • Included Training Videos
                      • Included Comprehensive Printable Manual
                        • Included Bookable Training and Admin
                          • Included Free One-to-one Onboarding Tour

Mid-Range

£650 / year
  • Features
    • Included Foods
      • Included Recipes
        • Included Suppliers and Costings
          • Included Team Members (Up to 10 users)
        • Menus and Recipe Groups
          • Included Menus and Recipe Groups (6)
            • Included Recipe Courses (25)
              • Included Menu Layouts (6)
                • Included External Menus (6)
                  • Included Print Label Layouts (unlimited)
                • Support
                  • Included Help Tips on Every Page
                    • Included Training Videos
                      • Included Comprehensive Printable Manual
                        • Included Bookable Training and Admin
                          • Included Free One-to-one Onboarding Tour

Full-Range

£1,100 / year
  • Features
    • Included Foods
      • Included Recipes
        • Included Suppliers and Costings
          • Included Team Members (Up to 50 users)
        • Menus and Recipe Groups
          • Included Menus and Recipe Groups (25)
            • Included Recipe Courses (unlimited)
              • Included Menu Layouts (unlimited)
                • Included External Menus (25)
                  • Included Print Label Layouts (unlimited)
                • Support
                  • Included Help Tips on Every Page
                    • Included Training Videos
                      • Included Comprehensive Printable Manual
                        • Included Bookable Training and Admin
                          • Included Free One-to-one Onboarding Tour

Testimonials

I am the Head Chef at the Lobster Pod Bistro, a Seafood Restaurant that also specialises in Pizzas on the South Devon coast. In the summer season, from our small kitchen we serve 300 plus customers a day. This includes a restaurant and a busy take-away operation, all being prepared in a kitchen that also kills, prepares and serves live lobsters, crabs and oysters. These are not only a potential life threatening food safety risk, they are also life threatening allergens and have to be managed along side a pizza section staffed with seasonal employees, that happens to be the only restaurant in the area happy to cater for coeliacs.

So when I was given the opportunity to trial and create a Control Catering Database and program for the Lobster Pod Bistro, I immediately could see the benefits that it could bring. Starting the program was to begin with perhaps a little daunting, but when broken down and completed in stages, it began to take shape and it got my team involved in helping with recipes, taking photos and became a part of staff training before it was completed! The process of creating the database really helped me to think about procedures and costings from a different perspective and has made efficiencies in my kitchen for sure.

The fact that the system is live has made a change to my day to day routine. We have a daily changing fish specials board, so being able to upload the menu live each morning live to an external iframe, with changes of price (Due to price changes in fish markets) and when changing recipes, sauces and ingredients, all allergens are automatically altered on a few clicks of a button, this is so time saving with the influx of seasonal staff it saves me having to repeat myself multiple times a day and takes the pressure off in the middle of a busy service in having to recall all the allergens in a new fish special.

James Theobald
Head Chef, The Lobster Pod Bistro

I've been getting familiar with Control Catering as part of my role in the Front of House Team at The Cottage Hotel. The program is multifaceted, and is a great source of information. It has really helped as a point of reference when there are questions from customers about the ingredients used, and possible allergens present.

Bindy Burns
FOH, Cottage Hotel, Devon

Recipe Illustrations

Do your Company Policies & Procedures protect your establishment if something goes wrong?

It is an important subject and is often only realised after an accident or near-miss. Owners then realise they need a solution like Control Catering, by which time it might be too late. When a problem occurs it all comes back to the Owner or CEO of the company and its procedures. Having systems and evidence in place designed to avoid issues goes a long way towards preventing prosecution.

What are the problems that systems like Control Catering are solving?

One of the most important points is that no staff member should give out verbal information about ingredients. The concise and accurate recipe sheet which for instance, Control Catering will guide you to create, provides the written documentation and due diligence that can be presented to the customer whose well-being is of the utmost importance.

  • Systems like Control Catering provide more control and visibility with powerful management and documentation tools to train, support and encourage accountability.
  • They allow you to easily manage ingredients and quickly identify allergens, calories and price changes.
  • Through integration they permit information curated and managed in one single place to be published to websites, menus and EPOS systems.
  • Help chefs control their budget with accurate component and recipe costs.
  • They help prevent cross-contamination through clear work-instructions, identify the use of alternative ingredients and audit traceable actions.
  • They can output printable food labels - legally compliant to Natasha's Law.
  • They increase customer satisfaction - accurate allergen management can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, as customers with allergies or intolerances will feel more confident and safe eating at the company's establishment.

Is making no decision regarding allergen management a good idea?

Making no decision regarding allergen management is not a good idea. It is important for any business that handles food to take responsibility for the safety of their customers, particularly those with food allergies or intolerances. Failure to properly manage allergens can have serious consequences for customers, including illness or even death, as well as legal consequences for the business. Therefore, it is crucial for companies to have a plan in place to manage allergen risks and to regularly review and update that plan as necessary. The use of software solutions can be an effective way to manage allergen risks and ensure compliance with relevant regulations.

What is Natasha's Law?

Natasha's Law is a new food labelling law in the UK that will require all pre-packaged foods to display a full list of ingredients on the label. The law is named after Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, a teenager who died in 2016 after suffering an allergic reaction to a sandwich that did not have adequate allergen labelling. The law came into effect on October 1st, 2021, and applies to all businesses that prepare and package food on-site for direct sale to consumers. The aim of the law is to provide greater protection to people with food allergies and intolerances by ensuring that they have clear information about the ingredients in the food they are buying.

What is the proposed Owen's Law?

Owen Carey was 18 years old in 2017 when he tragically died as a result of an anaphylactic reaction to food he had eaten. His family have launched a campaign to legally require restaurants to provide information about the top 14 allergens on the face of their menus. Find out more about Owen’s Law here: https://owens-law.co.uk/ Currently we are working with MPs, Catering organisations and other companies to implement the proposed Owens law in a practical and cost effective manner for the Caterer. Find out more information about the campaign here: https://www.controlcatering.com/save-lives.

Why systems save money and help the business to improve its bottom line?

  • Proof with due diligence system - if things go wrong you are saving on legal costs.
  • Cross check historical price of products against different suppliers.
  • Exact costing on components and recipes - no guess work.
  • Can see when prices need to be increased.
  • Helps you stick to your HACCP plan for kitchen management keeping your 5 star food rating.
  • Control of staff; the owner takes back control with internal training system and written work instructions.
  • Systems permit repeatable and reliable training for new staff ensuring that information given out is accurate and up to date, or provided directly from the system.

What is the value Control Catering specifically brings?

It provides a tool that covers your company, should things go wrong, for a reasonable price.

  • Control Catering is time and cost effective compared to the competition.
  • Provides integration with websites and EPOS systems, making detailed recipe information available to customers.
  • Framework for recording of due diligence i.e double-checking systems, avoiding cross-contamination and solving the big problem of alternative ingredients. The small caterer is more prone to give misinformation as they are less likely to have the systems in place to deal with allergen problems and people will sadly keep losing their lives or be very ill as a result. Control Catering solves these problems for everyone who is eating out in small independent establishments.
  • Detailed user training video content is provided to allow staff to operate the system without the need for on-site trainers. If extra training or inputting of data is required, Control Catering can assist with a personalised solution to your business problem.
  • Ultimately Control Catering will provide the tools to keep your business running within the realms of the law and keep you out of jail!

Why was Control Catering created?

Control Catering is about providing a solution to manage allergens for independent caterers to create recipes, incorporate them into bespoke menus and automatically manage and identify all possible allergens (not just the 14 legal), providing solutions for business owners including, cost controls and due diligence at affordable prices for independent establishments. Built by Caterers.

Who is a typical Control Catering customer?

All types of catering establishments, hotels, pubs, workplace canteens and small manufacturers.

Who does Control Catering work with?

We are not experts in every area so we have linked to the following companies to make Control Catering more efficient and accurate as possible:

  • Erudus - API links bring your ingredient data from manufacturers direct into Control Catering.
  • McCance & Widdowson's "composition of foods integrated dataset" (Control Catering is campaigning for improvements).
  • Catering Suppliers - ask your supplier if they link to Control Catering.

Control Catering is free to use and test for 14 days with no credit card needed.

Contact us if you would like to arrange a no obligation demonstration.

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