Frequently Asked Questions

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Food law is a complicated field, legislation is complex and often requires interpretation. In theory, you could do your own labels, but it’s easier, quicker, and often more reliable to use the services of a specialist food label compliance expert. And, if you value your time, it’s probably cheaper too to use an expert.

Sooner is better than later and we see a lot of clients who leave things very late. The earlier you contact us in your launch or relaunch process, the more help and support we can supply, and the less stressful it will be for you. Ideally, give us a call about 6 months before launch so we can talk you through all the processes and help you avoid any last-minute panic.

If you got a toothache, would you pull your own teeth? Or if your car was making a crazy noise, would you just ‘have a go’? You could take a DIY approach, but working with a food label compliance expert will often cost a lot less in the long run. The costs of reprinting your packaging because of an error, or having to recall a product from the shelves of a store due to critical information being wrong or absent, could cost you many thousands of pounds or cost your business its reputation. 

Legally speaking, you don’t have to work with an expert – but it never hurts to be better informed. The rules covering selling direct to the consumer in such settings are not as strict as those for online sales or sales through third-party channels, but it can help to get your labels checked over for compliance. If you hope to expand into online or retail channels as your business grows, why not talk to us early so we can help you prepare. 

Distance Selling Regulations (Article 14 of regulation 1169/2011) apply to food or beverages that are sold via a website whether that’s your own site, or a third-party site like Etsy or Amazon.  Basically, the standard of information that’s expected when you sell your artisan cookies, chocolates, chutneys or sauces through a website, is as high as would be required if you were selling through a supermarket. Consumers should expect to be able to find just as much information online as they can in a store. 

The costs will depend on a number of factors, including:

· the complexity of your product (the number of ingredients, the number of steps in the recipe to make it, etc), 

· how many products in the range

· how similar the products in a range are

· how urgently you need the work completed.

We offer a variety of support levels for label compliance at different prices and at rates significantly more attractive than from our larger competitors.

The full service might include us producing your ingredient panel, calculating your traffic light ‘colours’, creating the ingredient list with QUID ingredients, identification of all the relevant allergens, checking any health or nutrition claims, checking the packaging layout is fully compliant, and (insert anything else).
 

A more basic service for a simple product might include just checking that the ingredient list you have created is accurately presented in accordance with the regulations.

Get in touch, we’ll discuss the right level of support for you, and prepare a quotation that sets out our expectations from you and what you can expect from us. 

 As a small business, we do not offer credit to new customers and you will be asked to pay in advance and in full for any projects whose value is less than £2000. For higher value projects, we will take a deposit of £2000 before we start your work. Once the work has been completed or after 30 days of the project starting, which ever is the sooner, we will issue you with  an invoice for the balance to pay within 14 days

As a small business, run from our home, we don’t have the high overheads of our bigger competitors but we do have what matters – the legal knowledge and qualifications, and the experience of doing hundreds of labels every year, with a focus on food and drink products for the UK market.  

Many new food businesses find it helpful to have a food label compliance expert available for ad hoc questions that come up during the NPD and launch process. Our Business Support Packages allow you to buy a few hours of support that you can draw on as and when you need it. So, no need to wait for us to give you a quote, collect payment, and then provide the information – you load your account with a few pre-paid hours, send in your queries, and we’ll get back to you with a response and tell you how much time you have left ‘on the clock’ for the next time. 

This is why we have the Business Support Packages. When you come across something you don’t understand, or you’re not sure about, just drop us an email. We’ll get back to you with a call or a written answer to reassure you. A lot of the calls we get are from confused business owners who need reassurance or explanations, and we’re happy to help.  

We don’t take on more assignments than we can handle, and we manage our workload to ensure that if we accept your project, we have scheduled the time to deliver in line with the agreed timelines. On occasion, if demand is particularly high, we have trusted associates with the same level of qualifications as us who can help to satisfy demand. 

UK food label compliance is our core expertise but we can support you with a wide range of related issues – such as finding co-manufacturers, finding copywriters or photographers, getting support for export or import regulations, or advising you on new product development. Some of these things we can do ourselves, for others we’ll happily refer you to our trusted associates if they know those topics better than we do.  We don’t make a charge or take commission on referrals to our associates. We have an outstanding network of contacts to help you on your journey to launch. But please don’t come to us just for those ‘add on’ services – we’re primarily here to help with your labels.