UK Food Labelling Requirements --- What Every Food Business Must Include

The Food Information Regulations 2014 (FIR) set out what must appear on food sold in the UK. For pre-packed food, a label must include all of the following:

Additionally, your label must not be misleading. You can't claim something is "homemade" if it came from a factory, "fresh" if it was frozen, or "locally sourced" if the ingredients travelled thousands of miles. Trading Standards enforces labelling claims as strictly as environmental health enforces food safety.

On 1 October 2021, the UK Food Information (Amendment) Regulations 2019 --- known as Natasha's Law --- came into force. It is named after Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, a 15-year-old who died in 2016 after suffering a severe allergic reaction to sesame seeds in a baguette from a Pret a Manger outlet. At the time, food prepared on the premises and sold from the same site did not require individual ingredient labelling. Natasha's parents campaigned for change, and the law now bears her name.

Natasha's Law introduced a critical new requirement: PPDS foods must carry a full ingredients list with allergens emphasised. PPDS means "Prepacked for Direct Sale" --- food that is packed on the same premises where it is sold, before the customer asks for it. Think of a sandwich in a fridge cabinet, a salad in a grab-and-go section, or a wrapped pastry on a counter. Before October 2021, these items did not need a full label. Now they do.

It is important to understand what is not PPDS. Food made to order at a deli counter, food served on a plate in a restaurant, and food packed at a customer's request are not PPDS --- allergen information for these can still be provided verbally or on a menu. But the moment you wrap a sandwich, put it on a shelf, and sell it without further interaction with the customer, Natasha's Law applies.

The UK recognises 14 major allergens that must be declared on food labels. These are: cereals containing gluten (wheat, rye, barley, oats), crustaceans (prawns, crab, lobster), eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk, nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, etc.), celery, mustard, sesame, sulphur dioxide and sulphites (above 10mg/kg), lupin, and molluscs (mussels, oysters, squid).

On pre-packed food, these 14 allergens must be emphasised in the ingredients list — typically using bold text, capital letters, or a contrasting colour. You cannot just list them separately in a "contains" box (though you can add a "contains" box as additional information — the emphasis in the ingredients list remains legally required).

For non-pre-packed food (restaurants, cafés, deli counters), you must be able to provide allergen information verbally or in writing on request. The information must be accurate, complete, and available before the customer makes their purchase. This is why every food business needs an up-to-date allergen matrix that maps every dish to the 14 allergens — and why every staff member must know where to find it and how to communicate it.

Cross-contamination warnings ("may contain" statements) are not legally required in the UK, but they are widely used as a defence if contamination occurs despite your controls. If you use "may contain" statements, they must be based on a genuine risk assessment — you cannot use them as a blanket disclaimer to avoid doing proper allergen management.

If you produce food in batches — whether it's meal prep, baked goods, sauces, or ready meals — you need a labelling system that ensures traceability. Every batch should be identified with a lot number or batch code that links back to your production records.

A good bulk food label includes: product name, batch code, production date, use-by date, storage instructions, full ingredients list with allergens emphasised, and your business details. If the product is being supplied to another business (B2B), some of these requirements are slightly different — the other business must have enough information to label the product correctly when they sell it to the final consumer.

The practical challenge for small food businesses is generating these labels consistently. Hand-writing labels is time-consuming, error-prone, and looks unprofessional. Print-on-demand systems require template management and label stock. A digital solution that generates labels from your recipe data — pulling ingredients, allergens, and dates automatically — eliminates errors and saves hours every week.

Home bakers selling at farmers markets, via social media, or direct to customers are not exempt from food labelling law. If you sell pre-packed food — a wrapped cake, a boxed set of brownies, a jar of jam — you are legally required to label it correctly, just like any other food business. The fact that you bake from your home kitchen does not change your legal obligations.

At a minimum, your labels need: the product name, a full ingredients list (with allergens emphasised), a use-by or best-before date, and your name and address. If you are a registered food business, your address must be the registered business address — this can be your home address, but be aware that it will appear on every label you sell.

For items sold loose at a market stall — cakes displayed without packaging, sold individually into a bag at the point of sale — allergen information must still be available. A clear sign listing allergens, an allergen binder at your stall, or verbal communication all satisfy the requirement. The key is that the information exists, is accurate, and is available before the sale is made.

If you're supplying baked goods to a café or shop for them to resell, you are now a B2B supplier. Your labels must provide enough information for the café to handle allergens safely and comply with their own labelling obligations. This typically means a full ingredients list with allergens emphasised, plus batch traceability information.

Generating compliant food labels manually is one of the most time-consuming and error-prone tasks in a food business. Every time you change a supplier, tweak a recipe, or introduce a new product, your labels need updating. If you produce multiple products with different ingredients and allergens, the workload multiplies fast.

A digital labelling system integrated with your food safety management makes this process automatic. When you enter a recipe into the Prevra app, the system knows the ingredients, knows which allergens are present, and can generate a compliant label instantly. Change one ingredient, and all labels that use it update automatically. This is not just faster — it eliminates the risk of an outdated label with incorrect allergen information reaching a customer.

Digital labels also give you version control and traceability. Every label generated is dated and trackable. If a customer has an allergic reaction, you can identify exactly which batch of labels was in use, which recipe version it came from, and what ingredients were in the product. This level of traceability is difficult to achieve with a manual system and could be critical in a legal defence.