Food, allergies and choking in a nursery: the EYFS rules from September 2025
The EYFS has a short section called Safer eating. It tells you what to find out before a child starts, who must be watching at the table, how food has to be prepared, and what to do about a choking incident. Here it is in plain words, with the paragraph for each rule, and a checklist.
In short
- Before a child is admitted you must get their dietary requirements, food allergies and intolerances, and share them with every member of staff who prepares or handles food (3.64).
- You must work with parents, and health professionals where appropriate, on allergy action plans, and keep them up to date and shared with all staff (3.65).
- Food must be prepared to prevent choking (3.67). Children must always be within sight and hearing of a member of staff while they eat (3.69). Someone with a full paediatric first aid certificate should always be in the room (3.63).
- All staff who prepare and handle food must receive training in food hygiene (3.71).
- Paragraph numbers here are the 2025 edition. The 2026 edition renumbers each of them up by one (3.63 becomes 3.64, and so on).
1. Before the child starts
You have to ask before the first day, not after the first lunch. The paragraph covers allergies, intolerances, preferences and any special health requirements. Whatever you learn must reach the people who cook and serve, and someone must be named at every meal and snack as the person who checks each child’s food.
3.64 Before a child is admitted to the setting the provider must obtain information about any special dietary requirements, preferences, food allergies and intolerances that the child has, and any special health requirements. This information must be shared by the provider with all staff involved in the preparing and handling of food. At each mealtime and snack time providers must be clear about who is responsible for checking that the food being provided meets all the requirements for each child.
Then comes the allergy action plan. This is a written plan for managing an allergy. The framework asks you to build it with parents and, where appropriate, health professionals, and to keep talking as things change.
3.65 Providers must have ongoing discussions with parents and/or carers and, where appropriate, health professionals to develop allergy action plans for managing any known allergies and intolerances. This information must be kept up to date by the provider and shared with all staff. Providers should refer to the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology (BSACI) allergy action plan.
The same paragraph says all staff must know the symptoms and treatments for allergies and anaphylaxis, the difference between an allergy and an intolerance, and that children can develop allergies at any time, “especially during the introduction of solid foods” (3.65). Paragraph 3.66 adds a rule about weaning: providers must talk with parents about the stage a child has reached and the textures they know, and “assumptions must not be made based on age.”
2. At the table
Three rules sit here. Seat babies and young children safely. Keep every child within sight and hearing of a member of staff. Have a trained first aider in the room.
3.68 Babies and young children should be seated safely in a highchair or appropriately sized low chair while eating. Where possible there should be a designated eating space where distractions are minimised.
3.69 Children must always be within sight and hearing of a member of staff whilst eating. Choking can be completely silent, therefore, it is important for providers to be alert to when a child may be starting to choke. Where possible, providers should sit facing children whilst they eat, so they can make sure children are eating in a way to prevent choking and so they can prevent food sharing and be aware of any unexpected allergic reactions.
3.63 Whilst children are eating there should always be a member of staff in the room with a valid paediatric first aid certificate for a full course consistent with the criteria set out in Annex A.
Note the wording. Sight and hearing is a “must”. The first aider in the room is a “should”. Separately, 3.36 is a “must”: a person with a current paediatric first aid certificate “must be on the premises and available at all times when children are present.” The full course in Annex A covers helping a child who is choking and a child who is suffering from anaphylactic shock; the shorter emergency course lists choking but not anaphylactic shock.
3. In the kitchen
The framework sets the duty and leaves the detail to the DfE. Your food must be prepared in a way that prevents choking, and the framework names where to look.
3.67 Providers must prepare food in a way to prevent choking. This guidance on food safety for young children: Food safety - Help for early years providers - GOV.UK (education.gov.uk) includes advice on food and drink to avoid, how to reduce the risk of choking and links to other useful resources for early years providers.
That DfE page is where the examples are. It says children can choke on any food, and lists steps to take. These are a few of them, quoted from the page:
cut small round foods (like grapes, strawberries and cherry tomatoes) lengthways and into quarters
do not give whole nuts to children under five years old
do not give children popcorn as a snack
The page has more: stones and pips out of fruit, hard fruit and vegetables sliced rather than chunked, cheese in strips, bones out of meat and fish, and a note on raisins for children under 12 months. Read the full list before you write your menu rules. It is guidance the framework points to, so treat it as the working standard for your cooks. The framework itself gives no list of foods.
Two more kitchen duties. Prepare food to suit each child’s developmental needs, not their age (3.66). And everyone who handles food needs training:
3.71 There must be an area adequately equipped to provide healthy meals, snacks and drinks for children as necessary. There must be suitable facilities for the hygienic preparation of food for children, if necessary, including suitable sterilisation equipment for babies’ food. Providers must be confident that those responsible for preparing and handling food are competent to do so. All staff involved in preparing and handling food must receive training in food hygiene.
Where Natasha’s Law fits
Natasha’s Law is the common name for the labelling rule on prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) food. The Food Standards Agency explains what PPDS means:
Prepacked for direct sale or PPDS is food that is packaged at the same place it is offered or sold to consumers and is in this packaging before it is ordered or selected.
Food that is not PPDS does not need that label, but allergen information still has to be given:
Any food that is not in packaging or is packaged after being ordered by the consumer. These are types of non-prepacked food and do not require a label with name, ingredients and allergens emphasised. Allergen information must still be provided but this can be done through other means, including orally.
In practice: a nursery kitchen that cooks and serves the day’s meal to the children in front of it is not selling prepacked food, but it still has to know and be able to say what is in each dish. The DfE page says that “since 2014, all food businesses, including early years settings, have been required by law to give details about the allergens in the food they provide.” The FSA page does not mention nurseries by name, and we have not tried to apply the PPDS test to your particular set-up. If you pack food on site before a parent or child selects it, read the FSA page and its decision tool.
4. When something goes wrong
Two situations: an allergic reaction, and a choking incident. For a reaction, the duty is training: all staff must know the symptoms and treatments (3.65). The first aid course content is set in Annex A. For choking, the framework asks for a record.
3.70 When a child experiences a choking incident that requires intervention, providers should record details of where and how the child choked and ensure parents and/or carers are made aware. The records should be reviewed periodically to identify if there are trends or common features of incidents that could be addressed to reduce the risk of choking. Appropriate action should be taken to address any identified concerns.
The DfE page gives an example of an incident that “requires intervention”: back pats. A record that can be read across several incidents is what lets you spot a pattern, such as one food or one room, and act on it.
Which paragraph number do I cite?
The 2025 edition applied from 1 September 2025. The 2026 edition applies from 1 September 2026, and today it is the current one. It inserts a new paragraph earlier in Section 3, so Safer eating moves from 3.63 to 3.70 into 3.64 to 3.71, and food hygiene training from 3.71 into 3.72. The 2026 text of 3.65 says “the food and drink being provided” where 2025 3.64 says “the food being provided”. The allergy, supervision and choking wording we checked is otherwise unchanged. Use the number from the edition you are reading.
5. Checklist
| Item | When | Paragraph (2025; 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Get dietary requirements, preferences, allergies, intolerances and special health needs | Before the child is admitted | 3.64; 3.65 |
| Share that information with every member of staff who prepares or handles food | Before the child starts, and on every update | 3.64; 3.65 |
| Name who checks each child’s food at each meal and snack | Every mealtime and snack time | 3.64; 3.65 |
| Talk to parents, and health professionals where appropriate, to build an allergy action plan; refer to the BSACI plan | Ongoing | 3.65; 3.66 |
| Make sure all staff know allergy and anaphylaxis symptoms and treatments, and the difference between allergy and intolerance | All staff | 3.65; 3.66 |
| Talk to parents about the stage each child has reached with solid foods and the textures they know | Ongoing; no assumptions based on age | 3.66; 3.67 |
| Prepare food to prevent choking; use the DfE Food safety page for the examples | Every meal | 3.67; 3.68 |
| Seat babies and young children safely; a designated eating space where possible | Every meal | 3.68; 3.69 |
| Keep children within sight and hearing of staff while they eat; sit facing them where possible | Every meal | 3.69; 3.70 |
| Have a member of staff with a valid full paediatric first aid certificate in the room | While children eat | 3.63; 3.64 |
| Record any choking incident that needs intervention, tell parents, review records for trends | When it happens; reviewed periodically | 3.70; 3.71 |
| Train everyone who prepares or handles food in food hygiene | Staff involved in food | 3.71; 3.72 |
| Know and be able to give the allergen information for the food you provide | Every dish | DfE Food safety page, “Allergies” |
Staffing at the table also depends on your ratios: see EYFS staff ratios explained. For what an inspector looks at, see Ofsted early years inspections. The people who cook for your children are staff too: the staff file and safer recruitment. If you offer funded places and ask parents to pay for meals, see what you can charge parents.
How NurseryGuard handles this
NurseryGuard keeps your policies and records in one place. Its allergy and dietary policy is adopted and signed by your staff with a dated audit trail, and a menu-derived allergen matrix is confirmed by the manager and dated. It does not hold a roster of children, so it does not hold a child’s allergy record. Your paediatric first aid certificates are kept on each staff member’s record and chased before they lapse.
Questions people ask
What do I have to know about a child’s allergies before they start?
EYFS 2025, 3.64: before a child is admitted, “the provider must obtain information about any special dietary requirements, preferences, food allergies and intolerances that the child has, and any special health requirements.” That information must be shared with all staff involved in preparing and handling food. In the 2026 edition this is 3.65.
Do I need an allergy action plan for every child with an allergy?
Paragraph 3.65 (2026: 3.66) says providers “must have ongoing discussions with parents and/or carers and, where appropriate, health professionals to develop allergy action plans for managing any known allergies and intolerances.” It also says providers “should refer to” the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology (BSACI) allergy action plan. The paragraph does not set out a template of its own.
Who has to be with the children while they eat?
Two things. Paragraph 3.69 (2026: 3.70): children “must always be within sight and hearing of a member of staff whilst eating.” Paragraph 3.63 (2026: 3.64): there “should always be a member of staff in the room with a valid paediatric first aid certificate for a full course.” The first is a “must”; the second is a “should”.
Does the framework list foods I must not serve?
No. Paragraph 3.67 (2026: 3.68) says providers “must prepare food in a way to prevent choking” and points to the DfE page “Food safety - Help for early years providers”. That page, not the framework, carries the examples, such as cutting grapes, strawberries and cherry tomatoes lengthways and into quarters, and not giving whole nuts to children under five.
Do we have to record every choking incident?
Paragraph 3.70 (2026: 3.71) covers “a choking incident that requires intervention”. It says providers “should record details of where and how the child choked and ensure parents and/or carers are made aware”, and review the records periodically for trends. The DfE page gives back pats as an example of intervention.
Does Natasha’s Law apply to our kitchen?
It applies to food that is prepacked for direct sale (PPDS): packaged at the same place it is offered, and already in that packaging before it is ordered or selected. The Food Standards Agency page says food that is not in packaging, or is packaged after being ordered, does not need that label, though allergen information “must still be provided but this can be done through other means, including orally.” The page lists settings such as schools, care homes and hospitals; it does not mention nurseries by name.
Sources
- Early years foundation stage statutory framework for group and school-based providers (2025 edition)Dated 14 July 2025, effective 1 September 2025; retrieved 2 October 2026 · GOV.UK
- Early years foundation stage statutory framework for group and school-based providers (2026 edition)Dated 13 July 2026, effective 1 September 2026; retrieved 2 October 2026 · GOV.UK
- Help for early years providers: Food safety (Department for Education)Page updated 10 September 2025; retrieved 2 October 2026 · GOV.UK
- Introduction to allergen labelling for PPDS food (Food Standards Agency, on GOV.UK)Updated 17 July 2026; applies to England, Northern Ireland and Wales; retrieved 2 October 2026 · GOV.UK
We searched GOV.UK for a separate DfE document titled “safer eating” and did not find one. “Safer eating” is the heading in the framework, and the DfE guidance it points to is the Food safety page above. The Food Standards Agency page was read on GOV.UK, which hosts the text.
NurseryGuard is software, not a legal adviser or an Ofsted inspector; it does not give legal advice. This page describes what the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework, Ofsted’s published guidance and the Department for Education’s guidance say, with the paragraph for each point, so you can read the source yourself. Versions and dates are those in force on the date shown; the documents change, so check the current version before you rely on any of it.
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