Guide
Do I need to label food for staff meals?
Staff meals plated to order usually need accurate allergen information rather than PPDS pack labels. Sealed grab-and-go packs prepared before staff choose them can be PPDS even if free of charge.
Reviewed against official guidance.SourcesNot legal advice.
The short answer
Staff meals plated to order usually need accurate allergen information rather than PPDS pack labels. Sealed grab-and-go packs prepared before staff choose them can be PPDS even if free of charge.
Decide PPDS using the FSA packing-before-selection test, then put name and ingredients with allergen emphasis on packs that meet it.
How to apply it
Staff meals plated to order usually need accurate allergen information rather than PPDS pack labels. Sealed grab-and-go packs prepared before staff choose them can be PPDS even if free of charge. Decide PPDS using the FSA packing-before-selection test, then put name and ingredients with allergen emphasis on packs that meet it. Walk the product in front of you against the checklist below before you print. The mistake to refuse is: Packed before selection still looks like PPDS.
- Plated to order → information available
- Sealed ahead → often PPDS
- Free does not automatically mean exempt
- Record recipes for packed staff food
Worked example
Worked example for “Do I need to label food for staff meals?”: take one real SKU you sell this week. Apply the first check — plated to order → information available. Then contrast it with sealed ahead → often PPDS. 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. (Staff meals plated to order usually need accurate allergen information rather than PPDS pack labels.)
Checklist before you print
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Plated to order → information available | For “Do I need to label food for staff meals?”, “Plated to order → information available” is the check that stops the pack drifting from what you actually sell. |
| Sealed ahead → often PPDS | For “Do I need to label food for staff meals?”, “Sealed ahead → often PPDS” is the check that stops the pack drifting from what you actually sell. |
| Free does not automatically mean exempt | For “Do I need to label food for staff meals?”, “Free does not automatically mean exempt” is the check that stops the pack drifting from what you actually sell. |
| Record recipes for packed staff food | For “Do I need to label food for staff meals?”, “Record recipes for packed staff food” is the check that stops the pack drifting from what you actually sell. |
Leaving staff fridge packs unlabelled because they are free
Packed before selection still looks like PPDS.
Go deeper
Next: Free samples. Free is not automatically exempt. Then paste your ingredients into the free generator and confirm allergens before you print.
Questions
Do agency staff change the rules?
What about a shared unmarked tub?
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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