PPDS labelling: a practical guide for small food businesses
How to work out which of your products need a PPDS label, what must be on it, and the mistakes inspectors see most often.
Step 1: Is it PPDS?
Ask three questions about each product. If the answer to all three is yes, it needs a full PPDS label under Natasha's Law:
- Is it packaged when the customer picks it up or orders it?
- Was it packaged before they chose it?
- Was it packaged on the premises where you're selling it (shop, stall, van or site)?
Made-to-order food isn't PPDS (provide allergen information another way, e.g. an allergen matrix). Food made elsewhere and delivered to you is standard prepacked food with its own, stricter labelling rules. Online/distance sales have separate requirements.
Step 2: What goes on the label
- The name of the food — descriptive and specific.
- Full ingredients list, in descending order by weight at the time of use, including additives and any ingredient your supplier's product contains (check their labels — a "seasoning mix" can hide several allergens).
- All 14 regulated allergens emphasised within the list — bold is standard. See the full allergen list.
A worked example
Note the emphasised allergens inside compound ingredients (the bread's soya flour, the mayonnaise's mustard) — missing those is the single most common failure.
The mistakes EHOs see most
- Compound ingredients not broken down — "mayonnaise" listed without its egg and mustard.
- Stale labels after recipe changes — a new supplier's pesto contains cashews, but the label still reflects the old one.
- Allergens listed separately but not emphasised in the ingredients list — a "contains" box alone doesn't satisfy PPDS rules.
- Vague names — "Pasta pot" instead of "Tomato & mozzarella pasta salad".
- Handwritten labels that fade or smudge — legibility is part of compliance.
Keeping labels accurate without the admin
The hard part of PPDS isn't printing a label once — it's keeping every label correct as recipes and suppliers change. AllergenKit Pro stores your ingredient library, builds ingredient lists with allergens emphasised automatically, and prints onto standard label sheets. Change one ingredient; every affected label updates. See pricing — or start free with the allergen matrix builder.