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Food Safety |
| Torbay Council | |
| Roebuck House Abbey Road Torquay TQ2 5TF | |
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food.safety @torbay.gov.uk |
 | 01803 208010 |
 | 01803 208854 |
- Trading Standards Central: Food Labelling
- Trading Standards Central: Food Standards Guidance Leaflets
- Food Standards Agency: Use of the Terms Fresh, Pure, Natural Etc in Food Labelling
- Food Standards Agency: Traffic Light Scheme
- Food Standards Agency: Helping you to make more informed choices
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Food Standards
Advice for Businesses
The food team can provide information to businesses on food labelling, food composition and quality matters.
Food Labelling
If you are selling food that is not being sold direct to the final consumer, for example it is being sold via another retailer, then you are required to have the correct labelling on the packaged product in accordance with the Food Labelling Regulations 1996. There are additional labelling requirements for certain products, for example meat, jam, chocolate and baby food.
Labelling Claims
The labelling of foods includes menus, packaged foods and loose foods. It is important when labelling foods that you do not mislead the consumer by making claims, for example labelling pre-packaged powdered soup on a menu as ‘homemade’ soup.
Some claims are prohibited. Claims that a food can prevent, treat or cure diseases or other ‘adverse conditions’ are prohibited.
Misleading claims or pictures are not allowed. For example a picture of a strawberry on a strawberry flavoured drink would not be allowed unless the flavouring was made mainly or wholly from real strawberries.
Nutritional claims, such as ‘rich in vitamins’ can be used, but only if the food meets set compositional standards. If a nutritional claim is made then the labelling must give all the nutritional information given in the form laid out in the Food Labelling Regulations 1996. If no nutritional claim is being made then there is no requirement to give the nutritional information, although a lot of manufacturers do for the benefit of the consumer.
If you require further labelling advice then please do not hesitate to contact this department.
Useful Information
The criteria for the labelling of food and food standard guidance leaflets can be found at Trading Standards Website:
- Trading Standards Central: Food Labelling
- Trading Standards Central: Food Standards Guidance Leaflets
Food Standards Agency guidance for the use of the terms fresh, pure, natural, traditional, original, authentic, homemade and farmhouse
Allergens
The prevalence of food allergens is increasing across the UK with around 1 in 70 adults being affected and 1 in 50 children now having a nut/peanut allergy. The leaflets below have been produced by the Food Standards Agency to help you give information to your customers about foods containing common allergenic ingredients so that they can make an informed decision about what to buy and eat.
Useful Information
What to consider when labelling food with allergenic ingredients. A guide for small businesses that make or sell pre-packed food is available from related documents.
The provision of allergen information for non pre-packed food, advice is available from related documents.
Advice for Consumers
The food team can provide information to consumers about food labelling, food composition and quality matters.
A Consumers Guide to Use by & Best Before
Confused by Use By? Baffled by Best Before? This page is to help you understand why different dates and descriptions are used on food labels, when they are used, and when you should not buy or eat the food in question.
All food must be labelled in accordance with the Food Labelling Regulations. They lay down rules for all aspects of any food label, and can often be complicated and difficult to understand. They are to make the labels on food clear to consumers, and include provision for telling you how long the food will last. This is exactly what the Use By and Best Before dates mean. They tell you how long the food will last, unopened, before you should eat it. They must also be given with instructions for storage to help you (unless this is clear anyway)
Best Before
Best Before means what it says. The food should not have significantly deteriorated before the date given. The date will usually be a particular day such as ‘Best Before 30 MAY 2007’, but may not include the year. You will also see ‘Best Before End’, but this will then only show a month and year, so ‘Best Before End 05 2007’, this is for foods with a longer shelf life.
There may be a note saying ‘keep refrigerated’ or ‘keep in a cool dry place’, you should do this. Also, if told to ‘keep refrigerated after opening’ you should do so, and remember that once opened, the food will not last as long.
It is generally safe to eat food after a Best Before date, and (except for eggs) food can still be sold legally after that date, though it may not still be good to eat!
Use By
Use By means what it says too, it is an instruction. It must be used for food which is highly perishable and likely to be harmful if eaten after it has spoiled. It is the date when the food will be reliably safe to eat. It must always give a particular date ‘Use By 22 MARCH’ and may include the year too; ‘Use by 22 03 2007’. There will be instructions for storage with a ‘Use By’ date too, but these will almost always be to ‘keep refrigerated’. Remember - it is important to get food back into refrigeration as soon as possible after buying it, try not to shop at lunchtime if you can't get cold items to the fridge before evening!
It is an offence to sell food after the ‘Use By’ date.
Other Dates
You may see ‘Sell By’ or ‘Display Until’ on some packs. These are not legal, required dates and are meant to be instructions for in-store staff. For fresh fruit and vegetables these may be the only dates shown, as they usually do not need a ‘Best Before’ date. On other foods it may be in addition to the ‘Use By’ or ‘Best Before’ date shown.
Useful Information
If you would like to know more information about the Food Standards Agency Traffic Light Labelling Scheme then please click on the link below:
The provision of allergen information for non pre-packed food
Related Documents
To view any published Related Documents for this service you will require the appropriate software. To download this software please see our documents help page. All links to documents will open in a new window. To request documents and files in an alternative format please contact us using the contact information provided on this page.
Related Documents
Food Standards Agency: A guide for small businesses - pre-packed food
Food Standards Agency: Allergy Guidance for Small Buisnesses
To view any published Related Documents for this service you will require the appropriate software. To download this software please see our documents help page. All links to documents will open in a new window. To request documents and files in an alternative format please contact us using the contact information provided on this page.