Guide
How to label dairy-free PPDS food
Dairy-free means you are not using milk ingredients — it does not remove the duty to list everything else and emphasise soya, nuts, gluten cereals and other Annex II allergens that remain.
Reviewed against official guidance.SourcesNot legal advice.
The short answer
Dairy-free means you are not using milk ingredients — it does not remove the duty to list everything else and emphasise soya, nuts, gluten cereals and other Annex II allergens that remain.
Emphasise Annex II allergens inside the ingredients list — bold, capitals, colour or underline — as set out in FSA allergen labelling guidance.
How to apply it
Dairy-free means you are not using milk ingredients — it does not remove the duty to list everything else and emphasise soya, nuts, gluten cereals and other Annex II allergens that remain. Emphasise Annex II allergens inside the ingredients list — bold, capitals, colour or underline — as set out in FSA allergen labelling guidance. Walk the product in front of you against the checklist below before you print. The mistake to refuse is: Reprint from a corrected master.
- Full ingredients list still required
- Emphasise non-milk allergens that are present
- Check dark chocolate and margarine specs
- Do not reuse the dairy recipe label
Worked example
Worked example for “How to label dairy-free PPDS food”: take one real SKU you sell this week. Apply the first check — full ingredients list still required. Then contrast it with emphasise non-milk allergens that are present. 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. (Dairy-free means you are not using milk ingredients — it does not remove the duty to list everything else and emphasise soya, nuts, gluten cereals and other Annex II allergens that remain.)
Checklist before you print
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Full ingredients list still required | For “How to label dairy-free PPDS food”, “Full ingredients list still required” is the check that stops the pack drifting from what you actually sell. |
| Emphasise non-milk allergens that are present | For “How to label dairy-free PPDS food”, “Emphasise non-milk allergens that are present” is the check that stops the pack drifting from what you actually sell. |
| Check dark chocolate and margarine specs | For “How to label dairy-free PPDS food”, “Check dark chocolate and margarine specs” is the check that stops the pack drifting from what you actually sell. |
| Do not reuse the dairy recipe label | For “How to label dairy-free PPDS food”, “Do not reuse the dairy recipe label” is the check that stops the pack drifting from what you actually sell. |
Crossing out milk on an old label
Reprint from a corrected master.
Go deeper
Next: Milk on food labels. Butter, cheese, cream and lactose-free. Then paste your ingredients into the free generator and confirm allergens before you print.
Questions
Is lactose-free the same as milk-free?
Do oat drinks need emphasising as cereals?
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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