How to Create Allergen Labels for a UK Bakery (2026 Guide)
Every UK bakery selling packaged products must comply with Natasha's Law — which means every product needs a label with a full ingredients list and allergens highlighted in bold. This step-by-step guide explains exactly how to create compliant allergen labels, what the rules require, and the fastest way to do it without errors.
Does your bakery need allergen labels?
If your bakery packages products before a customer orders them — whether that's wrapping brownies in cellophane, boxing up cupcakes or bagging loaves — those products are classified as PPDS (pre-packed for direct sale) under Natasha's Law.
PPDS food must carry a label with:
- The name of the food
- A full ingredients list in descending order by weight
- All 14 major allergens highlighted (typically in bold) wherever they appear in the ingredients list
This applies regardless of where you sell — market stalls, farm shops, your own premises, online orders, wholesale to cafés.
Step-by-step: creating a compliant allergen label
Include every component — including sub-ingredients within compound ingredients. If you use dark chocolate, you need to list what's in the chocolate (cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla extract, emulsifier: soya lecithin).
Weigh each ingredient as it goes into the recipe. The ingredient present in the largest quantity goes first. Sub-ingredients within a compound ingredient are listed in brackets, also by weight.
Check every ingredient — including sub-ingredients — against the 14 major allergens: celery, cereals containing gluten (wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt, kamut), crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphur dioxide/sulphites, tree nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, Brazil nuts, pistachios, macadamias).
Every allergen must be emphasised relative to the rest of the text. Bold is the standard approach. The allergen name must be clearly identifiable — e.g. "Butter (Milk)" or "Wheat flour".
If your kitchen handles allergens that aren't in a specific recipe but could cause cross-contamination, add a "may contain" statement below the ingredients list. This is separate from the main ingredients list and not required to be in bold.
The label must be on the packaging before the product is offered for sale. It cannot be provided separately on a card or verbally.
Example: compliant allergen label for a chocolate brownie
Common mistakes to avoid
- Forgetting sub-ingredients — if you use a compound ingredient (chocolate, baking powder, stock), you must list its components and check them for allergens
- Wrong order — ingredients must be listed heaviest first by weight as used in the recipe, not by volume or alphabetically
- Missing allergens in sub-ingredients — soya lecithin in chocolate is a common one that gets missed
- Not updating labels when recipes change — if you swap an ingredient, every label for that product must be updated before the next batch is sold
- Using the same label for different batches with different ingredients — if you sometimes use salted butter and sometimes unsalted, your label must reflect what's actually in that batch
The faster way: use allergen label software
Creating labels manually is time-consuming and error-prone. Allergen label software like FoodCore generates compliant labels directly from your recipe data — so the ingredients list is always accurate, allergens are always highlighted, and labels update automatically when recipes change.
FoodCore is kitchen management software for small UK food businesses — recipe costing, Natasha's Law labels, shopping lists and order tracking.
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