Food Labelling Guide

Importance of food labelling

Food labelling is the most obvious way in which your customers can acquire knowledge about the food they intend to buy. The information provided on food labels such as expiry dates, handling instructions and allergy warnings is critical as it can help your customers prevent unnecessary food-borne illness and allergic reactions.

In a busy commercial kitchen, food labelling is equally important for your back of house staff to ensure foods are dated accurately and carefully described. A sharpie marker is perfect for this task, being more reliable than any other form of marking due to the fact it is both fade and water resistant, and can write on most surfaces.

Whether at work or home, keeping a sharpie marker by your fridge and freezer is highly recommended, because it is ideal for marking all shapes and types of packaging, including glass.

Stock control

Managing your stocks is a critical factor in food safety. Making sure that you don’t have too much stock is the best practice. There are some steps you can take to control stock effectively:

• Plan the stock you need for each shift
• Ensure that your staff know the stock requirements for each shift
• Use a reliable supplier who understands the industry
• Perform a stock check before reordering
• Regularly revise your menu and how it affects your stock

Keeping track of when food should be used or thrown away is also vital for high kitchen hygiene standards, which can be maintained by following these steps:

• For dishes which have been prepared or cooked in advance, food labels are ideal
• Follow a ‘first in, first out’ system of stock rotation, so that older stock is used first to avoid waste
• Train your staff in stock control and make sure they know the order that the food should be used
• Regularly check that stock control is being carried out effectively

If you find that you have more food in stock than necessary and think it will not be used before the 'use by' date, you could freeze some of it to be used in future. It is imperative to use labelling to record the date of freezing, and will also help with stock rotation.

Checking ingredients

It is important to check food labels and supplier information for the presence of allergens in the ingredients used to prepare any dish. This will be necessary when writing menus so that presence of allergens in certain dishes can be clearly displayed.

Common foods which are inaccurately described

Scampi

Scampi must refer to complete whole tails of the Nephrops norvegicus species. Reformed scampi pieces must be clearly labelled as 'reformed scampi'.

Chicken fillet and breast

This term must not be used where the chicken has been chopped or shaped, or that contains added water and other proteins, either from another animal species or derived from milk. It is vital to make it clear to customers if the product does not contain 100% pure chicken meat.

Composition of meat products

A minimum meat conent legal requirement means that foods such as sausages, beef burgers, pasties, pies and sausage rolls can only be named as such if it contains a sufficient amount of pure meat. For example, a pork burger must contain around 67% of pork or 62% of mixed meat for it to be legally named as such.

Vegetarian

All vegetarian dishes must be produced without contact or contamination with meat, fish or seafood. This also includes the separation of oils for frying vegetable dishes and checking sauce ingredients. Some cheeses contain rennet for example, an animal by-product which may not be suitable for vegetarians.

Free from nuts, wheat, milk and shelfish

Special care must be taken when preparing any food described as ‘suitable for allergy sufferers’ when written down on a menu or board or communicated verbally. In the case of nut allergies, a fatal reaction can result from just miniscule levels of contamination, so with such a high risk level the preparation and labelling must be treated with extreme caution.

Protected food names

Two common examples of products now accredited with protection status are Cornish pasties and Cumberland sausages. When using these names it is essential to comply with requirements of origin and composition. If you want to apply to have the name of your product protected under EU law, you can do so via the government website.

Legal labelling requirements

Any foods containing irradiated ingredients must show this in their description with a clear message such as ‘irradiated’ or ‘treated with ionising radiation’. Raw milk must also be clearly described as: Milk supplied in this establishment has not been heat-treated and therefor may contain organisms harmful to health’.

Colourings

From regulations set in 2013, only certain colours are allowed in food, with maximum levels set for some colours, particularly for restaurants and takeaway meals.

In practice

Check that any of your descriptions match those of your supplier. Cross reference order forms, invoices, delivery documents, or contact your supplier directly if you are in any doubt as to the accuracy of your descriptions. It is important to bear in mind the following:

• Product specifications are subject to change so will require regular checking
• Take great care when switching suppliers
• Advise your customers of any changes to product descriptions. With a permanent change, your menu will need to be amended.
• Perform a stock check before reordering
• Always follow the instructions provided for any seasonings or colourings. If there are no instructions provided or they are not clear enough, request further details from your supplier in written form, and never guess or rely on verbal information

Key legislation

• Food Safety Act 1990
• EU regulation no. 1169/2011
• Fish labelling regulations 2013
• Food information regulations 2014

For further information, and to keep up to date with the latest regulations, be sure to visit the Food Standards Agency website.