Guide
Do I need a food hygiene rating to sell PPDS food?
You need to register as a food business and meet hygiene law. A displayed rating is part of the FHRS scheme — it is separate from Natasha’s Law labelling, which still applies to your PPDS packs.
Reviewed against official guidance.SourcesNot legal advice.
The short answer
You need to register as a food business and meet hygiene law. A displayed rating is part of the FHRS scheme — it is separate from Natasha’s Law labelling, which still applies to your PPDS packs.
Control masters, reprint when recipes change, and train staff not to improvise labels. Process beats memory on a busy service.
How to apply it
You need to register as a food business and meet hygiene law. A displayed rating is part of the FHRS scheme — it is separate from Natasha’s Law labelling, which still applies to your PPDS packs. Control masters, reprint when recipes change, and train staff not to improvise labels. Process beats memory on a busy service. Walk the product in front of you against the checklist below before you print. The mistake to refuse is: Hygiene ratings do not list allergens for customers on the pack.
- Register with your local authority
- Meet hygiene requirements
- Label PPDS packs correctly
- Ratings and labelling are related but separate duties
Worked example
Worked example for “Do I need a food hygiene rating to sell PPDS food?”: take one real SKU you sell this week. Apply the first check — register with your local authority. Then contrast it with meet hygiene requirements. Write the name of the food and the full ingredients list from today’s recipe and supplier specs, emphasise every Annex II allergen each time it appears, and only then print. If the pack in your hand does not match that list, it is not ready for sale. (You need to register as a food business and meet hygiene law.)
Checklist before you print
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Register with your local authority | For “Do I need a food hygiene rating to sell PPDS food?”, “Register with your local authority” is the check that stops the pack drifting from what you actually sell. |
| Meet hygiene requirements | For “Do I need a food hygiene rating to sell PPDS food?”, “Meet hygiene requirements” is the check that stops the pack drifting from what you actually sell. |
| Label PPDS packs correctly | For “Do I need a food hygiene rating to sell PPDS food?”, “Label PPDS packs correctly” is the check that stops the pack drifting from what you actually sell. |
| Ratings and labelling are related but separate duties | For “Do I need a food hygiene rating to sell PPDS food?”, “Ratings and labelling are related but separate duties” is the check that stops the pack drifting from what you actually sell. |
Thinking a five-star sticker replaces ingredients lists
Hygiene ratings do not list allergens for customers on the pack.
Go deeper
Next: Who enforces Natasha’s Law?. Local authority food teams. Then paste your ingredients into the free generator and confirm allergens before you print.
Questions
Can I trade while waiting for inspection?
Does labelling affect the rating?
Official sources
Everything on this page traces back to these. Where they and we disagree, they are right — tell us and we'll fix it.
- Introduction to allergen labelling for PPDS foodFood Standards Agency / GOV.UK
- Labelling guidance for prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) food productsFood Standards Agency / GOV.UK
- Food allergen labelling and information requirements technical guidanceFood Standards Agency / GOV.UK
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