East Sussex Trading Standards advise businesses about and enforce numerous pieces of food standards legislation, including regulations on food labelling.
In general all food labels must show:
- the name of the food
- a list of ingredients, in descending order by weight
- a percentage quantity indication for certain ingredients or categories of ingredients
- a 'use by', 'best before' or 'best before end' date, or possibly a lot or batch number
- any special storage or use conditions
- the name and address of the manufacturer, packer or seller
- the place of origin, if its omission could mislead
- any instructions that are necessary to use the food
- whether the product contains any ingredients that commonly cause allergies, for example peanuts, nuts, gluten, eggs, milk, fish and shellfish.
Please note – the above requirements provide a broad overview only and there are certain circumstances when the full labelling requirements do not apply. Specific labelling requirements also apply for products such as meat, fish, honey and jam. For more information use the links below or contact Trading Standards.
Further guidance
Further guidance on food labelling is available from the Food Standards Agency.
East Sussex County Council