Guidance: Packaging and labelling: legal requirements for food businesses

Legal requirements for providing food information to consumers

Other than in Northern Ireland (NI), any references to European Union (EU) Regulations in this guidance should be read as meaning assimilated EU law. You can access assimilated EU law via the HM Government EU Exit web archive. This should be read alongside the relevant EU Exit legislation that was made to ensure assimilated EU law operates correctly in a United Kingdom (UK) context. EU Exit legislation can be accessed on legislation.gov.uk. In NI, EU food law will continue to apply, as listed in the Northern Ireland Protocol. Assimilated EU law will not apply in these circumstances.

This page highlights the requirements of Regulation No. 1169/2011, the Food Information to Consumers (FIC) Regulation, and associated legal standards for labelling and composition of food products such as bottled water, milk, fish and meat. The Food Information to Consumers (FIC) Regulation 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers brings together EU rules on general food labelling and nutrition labelling into one piece of legislation.

The assimilated version of Regulation 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers applies to food businesses in Great Britain (GB). Whereas, EU food law, including Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers , applies in NI.

All prepacked food requires a food label that displays certain mandatory information. All food is subject to general food labelling requirements and any labelling provided must be accurate and not misleading.

Certain foods are controlled by product specific regulations and they include:

The following information must appear by law on food labels and packaging:

The name of the food must be clearly stated on the packaging and not be misleading.

If there is a name prescribed in law this must be used.