Myperfectpack share guidance which tells you the information you must provide with food products, so you comply with the rules on food information to consumers.
These rules apply to you if you operate a food business, even if you give food to consumers for free. You do not need to give food information to customers if you’re not a food business and you’re providing food for an occasional event, like a village fair.
To sell food and drink products, the label must be:
clear and easy to read
permanent
easy to understand
easily visible
not misleading
You must show certain basic information and list the ingredients. You might also have to show certain warnings.
There are special regulations for labelling wine.
Responsibilities
The business under whose name the food is marketed is primarily responsible for the food information unless that business is not established in the EU, in which case the first importer into the EU has the responsibility. However, even businesses that don't affect the information shouldn't supply food where they suspect the information is non-compliant.
Any changes made to the food information must not mislead or reduce consumer protection. They are the responsibility of the business to make the changes.
Businesses that supply ingredients or consumer-ready loose food to other businesses must provide enough information for the recipients to meet the eventual obligations to caterers and consumers. When consumer-ready prepacked food is not marketed directly to the consumer, the required food information can be provided in commercial documents. However, the legal name of the food, the durability date, the storage/usage conditions and the business name and address must also appear on the external packaging of the prepacked assssssssssssssfoods. This also applies when prepacked food is intended for caterers to use in dish preparation.
Packaging
If you package food yourself, you must use packaging that’s suitable for food use. Suitable packaging is marked ‘for food contact’ or has a symbol on it that looks like a wine glass and a fork.
There are special rules for using plastics, ceramics or cellophane for packaging. You must have written evidence that you’ve kept to them.
This is known as a ‘declaration of compliance’ and you can get it from your packaging supplier. You also have to get one if you buy food that’s already packaged for sale in any of those materials.
Food labelling - what you must show
You must show the following information
the name of the food
a ‘best before’ or ‘use by’ date
any necessary warnings
net quantity information
a list of ingredients (if there is more than 1)
the country or place of origin, if required
the lot number or use-by date
any special storage conditions
instructions for use or cooking, if necessary
If you’re selling food in Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland), you must also include the name and address of the UK or EU business responsible for the information on the food. If the business is not in the UK or EU, you must include the name and address of the importer. If you’re selling food in Northern Ireland, you must include the name and address of the Northern Irish or EU business responsible for the information on the food. If the business is not in Northern Ireland or the EU, you must include the name and address of the importer.
Quantity information
You must put the net quantity in grams, kilograms, millilitres or litres on the label of:
packaged food over 5g or 5ml
packaged herbs and spices
Solid foods packed in a liquid (or an ice glaze) must show the drained net weight.
The net quantity must be close enough to the name of the food that you can see all this information at the same time. This also applies to the alcoholic strength for alcoholic drinks.
You do not have to show the weight or volume on foods sold by number, for example 2 bread rolls, provided that you can clearly see the number of items inside the packaging.
Information you may have to show
You must also show these if they apply to your product:
a warning for drinks with an alcohol content above 1.2%
a warning if the product contains GM ingredients, unless their presence is accidental and 0.9% or less
a warning if the product has been irradiated
the words ‘packaged in a protective atmosphere’ if the food is packaged using a packaging gas
Country or place of origin
You must show the country or place of origin for:
beef, veal, lamb, mutton, pork, goat and poultry
fish and shellfish
honey
olive oil
wine
fruit and vegetables
You must also show the country of origin if customers might be misled without this information, for example if the label for a pizza shows the leaning tower of Pisa but the pizza is made in the UK.
If the primary ingredient in the food comes from somewhere different from where the product says it was made, the label must show this. For example, a pork pie labelled ‘British’ that’s produced in the UK with pork from Denmark, must state ‘with pork from Denmark’ or ‘made with pork from outside the UK’.
Special rules for some products
There are special rules about what you have to show on the label if you supply any of the following:
bottled water
bread and flour
cocoa and chocolate products
fats and oils
fish
fruit juices and nectars
honey
jams and preserves
meat and meat products
milk and milk products
soluble coffee
sugar
Ingredients list
If your food or drink product has 2 or more ingredients (including any additives), you must list them all. Ingredients must be listed in order of weight, with the main ingredient first.
Ingredient quantities
You also have to show the percentage of an ingredient if it is:
highlighted by the labelling or a picture on a package, for example ‘extra cheese’
mentioned in the name of the product, for example ‘cheese and onion pasty’
normally connected with the name by the consumer, for example fruit in a summer pudding
Allergens
You must highlight allergens on the label using a different font, style or background colour. You must also list them in the ingredients.
The allergens you need to highlight and list are:
celery
cereals containing gluten - including wheat, rye, barley and oats
crustaceans - including prawns, crab and lobster
eggs
fish
lupin
milk
molluscs - including squid, mussels, cockles, whelks and snails
mustard
nuts
peanuts
sesame seeds
soya beans
sulphur dioxide or sulphites at levels above 10mg per kilogram or per litre
Nutrition, health claims and supplement labelling
Nutrition labelling You must follow nutrition labelling information rules for all pre-packed products unless both of the following apply:
you’re a small business with under 10 employees and a turnover of less than £1.4 million
you supply either direct to consumers or to local retailers - local means within your county, your neighbouring county, or up to 30 miles from your county boundary
Nutrition and health claims You have to follow certain rules if you want to make a nutrition claim (for example, low fat) or a health claim (for example, calcium helps maintain normal bones). You cannot claim or imply that food can treat, prevent or cure any disease or medical condition. Food supplements, fortified foods and foods for specific nutritional uses You must follow certain rules if you are manufacturing, selling or importing:
a food supplement
a food fortified with vitamins and minerals
There are also specific rules for ‘parnuts foods’, for example:
formula milk for infants and young children
baby food
meal and total diet replacement for weight control
medical foods
Organic food
If you’re a retailer, you can label products ‘organic’ as long as:
at least 95% of the farm-grown ingredients are organic
you sell direct to customers in your shop
Organic certification You must be certified by one of the organic control bodies if you produce or prepare organic food and you want to sell or label it as organic. You can decide which body to register with based on your location and needs. Once registered you’ll have to:
follow a strict set of guidelines laid down by national and international law
keep thorough and accurate records of production processes
allow annual and random inspections
Bottled water
There are 3 types of bottled water with rules that producers need to follow to produce and market it to the public.
These are:
natural mineral water
spring water
bottled drinking water
There are different guidelines.
Labelling pre-packed food
Pre-packed food is any food that’s put into packaging before being put on sale and that cannot be altered without opening or changing the packaging.
Information to display on labels or packaging
You must display the following information (mandatory information) on the product packaging or on a label attached to the packaging:
the name of the food
the quantitative ingredients declaration (QUID), where needed
a list of ingredients (including allergens)
the weight or volume of the food (net quantity)
a ‘best before’ or ‘use by’ date
the name and address of the food business operator (FBO) responsible for the food information
the alcoholic strength by volume (as a percentage) on drinks containing over 1.2% alcohol by volume
How to display information on labels or packaging
Information on labels must be difficult to remove (indelible).
Your labelling must allow the customer to see all the following information at the same time (it must be in the same field of vision):
the name of the food
the net quantity of the food
alcoholic strength by volume (for drinks containing over 1.2% alcohol)
You must print all the mandatory information using a font with a minimum x-height of 1.2 millimetres.
Add information about country of origin and special storage conditions
State a product’s country of origin or place of provenance on the label if the words or pictures on the packaging imply that it comes from somewhere else. For example, if a food has a tartan wrapper but was not made in Scotland, you need to put the actual country of origin on the label.
The ‘country of origin’ tells the consumer the country in which the food was produced. The ‘place of provenance’ may be a group of countries or a region within a country.
Some country of origin rules have changed. Read guidance on country of origin labelling.
Describe on the label any special storage conditions or instructions if consumers will need them to use the food appropriately. For example, a product may need the words ‘keep refrigerated and use within 3 days of opening’ or ‘do not reheat’.
If a product has been packaged in a protective atmosphere, include the words ‘packaged in a protective atmosphere’ on the label or packaging
List the ingredients
You must put a list of ingredients (including information on additives) on the packaging of all pre-packed products except:
fresh fruit and vegetables that have not been peeled, cut or similarly treated
carbonated water that is labelled as ‘carbonated water’
fermented vinegars derived from single, basic product (such as white wine) with no added ingredients
cheese, butter, fermented milk or cream if its only ingredients are lactic products, food enzymes and microorganism cultures essential to its manufacture
products consisting of a single ingredient where the name of the food is the same as the name of the ingredient or clearly identifies what the ingredient is (for example, peanuts or eggs)
products on which no side of the packaging or container has a surface area larger than 10cm squared
products in glass bottles for reuse that have food information indelibly marked on them and have no other labelling (for example, milk bottles)
any alcoholic drink containing over 1.2% alcohol by volume
You must put the ingredients list under a heading that contains the word ‘ingredients’.
If you’re not sure whether your particular food product is exempt from needing an ingredients list, contact your local trading standards office.
The name of ingredients should follow the rules set out for the name of the food. For example, you must only call an ingredient ‘jam’ if it meets the compositional standards for jam.
You must list the ingredients by weight from the most to the least that your product contains (based on the ingredient weights at the time of manufacture).
Give a quantitative ingredients declaration (QUID)
The QUID tells a customer the percentage of particular ingredients contained in a food product.
When to display the QUID
You must show a QUID if the ingredient:
is in the name of the food (for example, the ‘blackberry’ and ‘apple’ in a blackberry and apple pie)
is usually associated with that name by the consumer (‘mutton’ in a Lancashire hotpot)
is emphasised by words, pictures or graphics on the label (for example, if there’s a picture of blackberries on the label)
characterises a food and distinguishes it from products with a similar name or appearance
For example, lasagne made with pork must show the QUID for the pork because it characterises the product and distinguishes it from a lasagne (usually made with beef).
You do not need to give a QUID if the ingredients:
You do not need a QUID for ingredients that can vary in quantity without altering the character of the food or distinguishing it from similar foods. For example, you do not need to show a QUID for flour in a flour tortilla.
You must give the meat QUID when you sell loose or pre-packed-for-direct-sale products that contain meat and other ingredients (except in a catering environment). You must display the QUID on a label on the food or display it clearly where the customer can see it when they are choosing the product.
On pre-packed food, you must give this information either:
as a percentage in brackets in the ingredients list after the name of the ingredient, for example ‘pork (80%)’
in or next to the name of the food, for example ‘containing 80% pork’
Show the ‘best before’ or ‘use by’ date
You must usually show either a ‘best before’ or a ‘use by’ date on the packaging or label of pre-packed food products.
Only show a ‘use by’ date where there’s a safety issue with eating the food after this date. It’s a criminal offence to sell food that’s past its ‘use by’ date.
Read Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) guidance on date marking
You do not need to show a ‘best before’ or ‘use by’ date, but you must include a lot number on:
fresh fruit and vegetables which have not been peeled, cut or similarly treated (except for sprouting seeds and similar products, like legume sprouts)
wines, liqueur wines, sparkling wines, aromatised wines and similar products made from fruit other than grapes
drinks made from fermented grapes or grape musts
drinks containing 10% or more alcohol by volume
baked or pastry goods which are normally consumed within 24 hours of being made
vinegar
cooking salt
solid sugar
confectionery made almost solely of flavoured or coloured sugars
chewing gums and similar chewing products
If you’re not sure whether your particular food product is exempt from showing a date of minimum durability, contact your local trading standards office.
Show the name and address of the food business operator
You must include a business name and address on the packaging or food label of pre-packed food products. This must be either:
the name of the business whose name the food is marketed under
the address of the business that has imported the food
Pre-packaged food or caseins sold in NI must include a NI or EU FBO address. If the FBO is not in NI or EU, include the address of your importer, based in NI or the EU.
You can continue to use an EU, GB or NI address for the FBO on pre-packaged food or caseins sold in GB until 31 December 2023.
From 1 January 2024, pre-packaged food or caseins sold in GB must include a UK address for the FBO. If the FBO is not in the UK, include the address of your importer, based in the UK.
The address needs to be a physical address where your business can be contacted by mail. You cannot use an email address or phone number.
Give nutritional information
You must label pre-packed food products with nutritional information if:
you make a nutritional or health claim on the packaging (for example ‘high in fibre’ or ‘good source of calcium’)
vitamins or minerals have been added to the food
You can choose to provide nutrition information on other food products.
When you provide nutrition information, you must follow the guidance on nutrition labelling.
Nutrition labelling has been compulsory on most pre-packed foods since December 2016.
Tell the consumer about certain ingredients
You must tell the consumer if your product contains:
sweeteners or sugars
aspartame and colourings
liquorice
caffeine
polyols
Sweeteners and sugars
You must put the words, ‘with sweetener(s)’ by the name of food products containing sweeteners
You must put the words, ‘with sugar(s) and sweetener(s)’ by the name of food products containing both sugars and sweeteners.
Aspartame and colourings
To comply with the rules on labelling additives, you must put the following warnings on the label if the product contains aspartame:
‘contains a source of phenylalanine’, if aspartame is named in the ingredients list
‘contains aspartame (a source of phenylalanine)’ if you use the E number (E951) instead of the name in the ingredients list
Liquorice
You must tell the consumer if a product contains glycyrrhizinic acid, its ammonium salt or the liquorice plant (Glycyrrhiza glabra). Put the following words immediately after the ingredients list (or by the name of the food if there’s no ingredients list):
‘contains liquorice’ on confectionary or drinks that contain 100 milligrams per kilogram or 10 milligrams per litre or more (unless you have named liquorice as an ingredient)
‘contains liquorice – people suffering from hypertension should avoid excessive consumption’ on confectionery that contains 4 grams per kilogram or more
‘contains liquorice – people suffering from hypertension should avoid excessive consumption’ on drinks that contain 50 milligrams per litre or more (or 300 milligrams per litre if it also contains more than 1.2% alcohol by volume)
Caffeine
You must label drinks that contain more than 150 milligrams per litre of caffeine with the words ‘High caffeine content. Not recommended for children or pregnant or breast-feeding women’.
This also applies to concentrated or dried drinks that will contain more than 150 milligrams per litre of caffeine when reconstituted. It does not apply to tea and coffee drinks if ‘tea’ or ‘coffee’ are in the name of the food.
Where caffeine has been added to a food product (other than a drink) for a physiological purpose, you must put the words ‘Contains caffeine. Not recommended for children or pregnant women’ on the label.
You must put these warnings in the same field of vision as the name of the food and include the caffeine content in milligrams per 100 grams or per 100 millilitres in brackets after the warning.
Polyols
You must label foods that contain more than 10% added polyols with the words ‘excessive consumption may produce laxative effects’.
Plant sterols and stanols
You must label foods with added phytosterols, phytosterol esters, phytostanols or phytostanol esters with all of the following:
‘with added plant sterols’ or ‘with added plant stanols’ (in the same field of vision as the name of the food)
a statement that the food is intended exclusively for people who want to lower their blood cholesterol level, and a statement that the consumption of more than 3g per day of added plant sterols or plant stanols should be avoided (both in the same field of vision on the packaging)
a statement that patients on cholesterol lowering medication should only consume the product under medical supervision
an easily visible statement that the food may not be nutritionally appropriate for pregnant or breastfeeding women and children under the age of 5
advice that the food is to be used as part of a balanced and varied diet, including regular consumption of fruit and vegetables to help maintain carotenoid levels
a definition of a portion of the food or food ingredient along with the amount of the plant sterol or plant stanol that each portion contains
You must put the amount of added phytosterols, phytosterol esters, phytostanols or phytostanol esters the food contains in the list of ingredients (as a percentage or the number of grams of free plant sterols or plant stanols per 100g or 100ml).
Distance selling
If you sell food products online or by phone or mail order, you must make the required information available for free to the customer before they buy (except the durability and freezing dates) and when it is delivered to them.
Selling food products to other businesses
You must pass on certain information about products if you are an FBO selling food products to other businesses, not to the final consumer. At the end of the supply chain, whoever is selling a food product to the final consumer must have all the information they need to provide.
Information you must give
If the food will be sold non-pre-packed to the final consumer, you must provide all the information required for non pre-packed foods.
If the food will be sold pre-packed to the final consumer, you must provide all information required for pre-packed food. This applies even if the pre-packing will be done by someone else after you sell it.
If you do not know how the food will be sold to the final consumer, you should assume that it will be pre-packed.
How to give the information
You must give the information on the pre-packaging if the packaging will not be changed before the product is sold to the final consumer.
If you’re not responsible for the final pre-packaging of the product or it is non pre-packed, you must provide the information either:
on pre-packaging
on a label attached to the pre-packaging
in the commercial documents associated with the food
You must send your customer the commercial documents before or at the same time as you send them the food.
Label external packaging
You must also put extra information on any external packaging that you use to supply food that meets either of the following conditions:
it’ll be taken out of your external packaging and sold in its own packaging (for example, a large box containing bags of potato crisps)
it’ll be used by a mass caterer to prepare food or it’ll be split or cut up
You must label your external packaging with:
the name of the food
the ‘best before’ or ‘use by’ date
any special storage conditions
the name and address of your business
Voluntary information
Some businesses that you sell to may ask you for additional, voluntary labelling information.
Important :
You must tell the Department for Health if you want to sell infant formula or medical food in the UK.
What is PPDS food?
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.
It can include food that consumers select themselves (e.g. from a display unit), as well as products kept behind a counter and some food sold at mobile or temporary outlets.
Examples of PPDS food
Prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) food can include the following:
Sandwiches and bakery products which are packed on site before a consumer selects or orders them
Fast food packed before it is ordered, such as a burger under a hot lamp where the food cannot be altered without opening the packaging
Products which are prepackaged on site ready for sale, such as pizzas, rotisserie chicken, salads and pasta pots
Burgers and sausages prepackaged by a butcher on the premises ready for sale to consumers
Samples of cookies given to consumers for free which were packed on site
Foods packaged and then sold elsewhere by the same operator at a market stall or mobile site
PPDS food provided in schools, care homes or hospitals and other similar settings will also require labelling
Improvement notices
In most cases, an officer from your local authority may issue you with an improvement notice if you have not complied with food regulations. Improvement notices cannot be issued in relation to net weight contraventions, but you can be prosecuted if you break net weight rules.
You’re committing an offence and may be prosecuted if you do not comply with an improvement notice.
You may be prosecuted (without first being given an improvement notice) if you break the rules on allergens.
An improvement notice will tell you what your business is doing wrong, what rules have been broken, how to comply and by when. It will also tell you how to appeal against an improvement notice.
You can continue to operate if you get an improvement notice, but you must do what it tells you to do within the time it specifies.
Reference: Food label & Safety guidelines (FSA) from UK Govt. Please take legal consulting before printing .
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