Bakery labels for home bakers: what to put on, what to print, what you can skip

What “bakery labels” usually means

For UK home bakers it is not a pretty logo sticker. It is the ingredients list on a boxed cake, cupcake clamshell or traybake, with allergens easy to see. If the bake is packed before the customer picks it up, that is often prepacked for direct sale (PPDS), the Natasha's Law setup.

More on that: What is Natasha's Law? and stalls and bake sales.

What to put on

For PPDS, FSA guidance centres on two things on the pack or a label attached to it:

• The name of the food: a clear name, not a joke that hides what it is
• A full ingredients list in weight order, with the 14 major allergens emphasised (bold, capitals or similar)

Most cake sheds also print a business name and an address so people know who made it. Ask your EHO if you are unsure about address rules.

Net quantity (weight or volume) is a separate rule from Natasha's Law. FSA PPDS allergen labelling is name plus ingredients with allergens emphasised. Trading Standards guidance (Business Companion) says weights and measures law still requires a net quantity on many PPDS foods, with exemptions. If you show a weight, include the unit (g, kg, ml, or e for each). Ask your local Trading Standards team if a cake you sell that way needs a weight on the label.

Date marks: a use by date is a safety date for food that goes off quickly (highly perishable), such as many chilled cream cakes. It is an offence to sell past a use by date. A best before date is about quality, not safety, and is used on foods that keep longer, such as many biscuits and traybakes. Storage instructions belong with the date when the product needs them (for example keep refrigerated). Fully prepacked shop food usually needs a date mark. PPDS allergen rules do not add that field on their own, but food safety law and how you sell still matter. Check current FSA and GOV.UK date-marking guidance for your product.

Field-by-field detail: what needs to be on an allergen ingredient label. Allergen list: the 14 allergens with baking examples.

What to print

Print what you will stick on the box before you leave the kitchen. Reprint when a pack changes (new flour brand, different chocolate). A Canva pretty label with no ingredients list is not a bakery label for PPDS.

You can draft on paper first. If you do this every week, photographing the packs and building the list in one place is faster than retyping. BakeSafe does that from pack photos. You still check the text against the pack before you sell.

How label scanning works

What you can skip (often)

Do not copy a supermarket ready-meal label line for line. Natasha's Law for PPDS is not every supermarket field. These are often not required by the PPDS allergen rules:

• A full nutrition table (calories, fat, salt per 100g)
• A pretty logo, QR code, or price. Useful for the stall, not a substitute for ingredients
• Dumping every allergen under “may contain” instead of listing what is actually in the bake

Do not skip net quantity just because it is not in the Natasha's Law pair of fields. Weights and measures can still require it. If you sell fully prepacked food the same way a shop does (packed by you, sold by someone else, or sent out as a packed product), extra rules can apply, including date marks, net quantity, and nutrition. Check current FSA guidance and your local authority for how you pack and sell.

How BakeSafe fits

Sign up, photograph the packs for one product, review the ingredients, print when you are happy. 7-day trial, no card. After the trial, BakeSafe is £15/month if you continue. It is a drafting aid. You stay responsible for the label.

Make bakery labels in BakeSafe