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You need to understand the information on food labels so you can work out if food is safe for you to eat. This includes:

• use-by and best before dates
• allergen labelling
• vegan labelling
• 鈥榝ree-from鈥� labelling

What to do if a food label is misleading

Food businesses must follow specific rules when labelling their products.

Labels must show certain information. They must be accurate and not be misleading.

You can contact to report a food business if you think that a label is missing some information, or is misleading in relation to:

• health claims
• ingredients
• weights
• the product description
• allergens

If you live in Northern Ireland, you can contact your local food safety team if there is an issue with missing or misleading information. For any other problems with the weights or measurements shown on a food label, contact Trading Standards.

Most prepacked foods must show either a use鈥慴y date or a best before date.

Use-by dates relate to the safety of food, whereas best before dates relate to quality.

Manufacturers decide whether to apply a use-by date or a best before date on their products. This depends on the type of food and how likely it is to become unsafe to eat over time.

Check the food label to see if it has a use-by or best before date.

Use-by dates

Use-by dates on food labels tell you when the food is no longer safe to eat. They must be shown on foods that go off quickly, such as meat products and ready-to-eat salads.

Eating food after the use-by date could make you ill.

The label will tell you how to properly store the food until you want to eat it, including what to do after you open the packaging. For example, if the instructions on the packaging tell you to refrigerate the food after opening it, you should keep it in a fridge at 5掳C or below.

If you do not store food properly, it could become unsafe to eat before the use-by date.

When you can eat food after the use-by date

You can eat food after the use-by date if it was cooked or frozen on or before the use-by date.

If you cook food before the use-by date, you should then cool it and keep it in the fridge. You must then eat it within 48 hours or freeze it to eat at a later date.

If you freeze food before the use-by date, it will not deteriorate as bacteria cannot grow on frozen food. You should keep your freezer at -18掳C and follow the freezing and defrosting instructions on the label. You should also label the food so you know what it is and when it was frozen.

Once the food has been defrosted, you need to use it within 24 hours.

Best before dates

Some foods reduce in quality over time. The best before date, also sometimes shown as 鈥榖est before end鈥� (BBE), tells you when the food might start to reduce in quality. Best before dates should appear on products such as:

• frozen foods (for example peas, chips and ice cream)
• dried foods (for example pasta and rice)
• tinned foods (for example baked beans and canned tomatoes)
• cheese

After the best before date, the food is usually safe to eat but may not be of the same quality.

The label tells you how to properly store the food until you want to eat it.

If you do not store food properly, it could reduce in quality before the best before date.

After the best before date, you can use sight, taste or smell to decide whether you should eat something - for example, by:

• looking for visible mould on bread
• tasting biscuits or crisps to see if they are stale
• smelling some dairy products to see if they have soured

There are 14 allergens which food businesses must tell you about if they鈥檙e an ingredient in their food or drink products. These allergens are:

• celery
• cereals containing gluten - including wheat, rye, barley and oats
• crustaceans - including prawns, crab and lobster
• eggs
• fish
• lupin
• milk
• molluscs - including squid, mussels, cockles, whelks and snails
• mustard
• nuts
• peanuts
• sesame seeds
• soya beans
• sulphur dioxide or sulphites at levels above 10mg per kilogram or per litre

Food labels can give you allergen information in several different ways. This can depend on the type of food or drink you buy and the type of business it鈥檚 from.

Find out what to do when eating out or ordering food when you have an allergy.

Prepacked food

Prepacked food is any food or drink which is put into packaging by a manufacturer before it鈥檚 put on sale by another food business. Some examples of prepacked products are:

• packets of crisps
• cans of fizzy drinks
• packaged bread

If prepacked food or drink contains any of the 14 allergens, they must be clearly labelled within the ingredients list. For example, they could be in bold, italics or a different colour.

Prepacked for Direct Sale (PPDS) food

PPDS products are foods or drinks that have been packed on the premises where they鈥檙e being sold before you鈥檝e selected them. Some examples of PPDS products are:

• sandwiches packed on site at a caf茅
• pastries or cakes packed on site at a bakery
• prepacked salad boxes at a deli
• burgers packed on site at a butchers

Allergens must also be clearly labelled within the ingredients list of PPDS food or drink. You can ask the business about ingredients and you should tell them about your allergy or intolerance.

Loose food

Loose food that is not prepacked (鈥榥on-prepacked food鈥�) includes:

• food that is sold loose in retail outlets (for example unwrapped bread rolls at a bakery counter, loose fruit and vegetables and salad from a self-serve counter)
• food that is not sold prepacked (for example restaurant meals served on plates, takeaway meals packaged after ordering and items cut and wrapped on request at deli counters)

Food businesses must give you allergen information for any loose item you buy that contains any of the 14 allergens. This can be given verbally or in writing. If they provide the information verbally, they must let you know where you can find written confirmation.

鈥楩ree-from鈥� labelling

Food safety labels such as 鈥榝ree-from鈥� or 鈥榓llergen-free鈥� are a guarantee that the specified allergen is not in the product. Food businesses who produce 鈥榝ree-from鈥� or 鈥榓llergen-free鈥� food products must follow strict processes to prevent cross-contamination.

If a business is unable to remove the risk of cross-contamination, they should let you know. They should not make any free-from claims.

Precautionary allergen labelling (PAL)

Precautionary allergen labelling (PAL) can be used to tell customers that traces of allergens may have got into products accidentally. These labels often use wording such as 鈥渕ay contain milk鈥� or 鈥渘ot suitable for people with a nut allergy鈥�.

Food businesses are not legally required to use PAL.

There is no legal definition of vegan food in UK law, but businesses must label food accurately and not be misleading.

If a food label says that a product is vegan or safe for vegans, it means that no ingredients of animal origin were intentionally used in the making of the product.

A vegan label does not guarantee that the product contains no ingredients of animal origin.

Vegan food could be prepared in areas and factories where allergens or ingredients of animal origin are present. This means that ingredients of animal origin could be in the product because of cross-contamination.

If a food business has labelled a product as vegan, but has identified a risk of cross-contamination, they should make this clear on the label. They can do this by using precautionary allergen labelling (PAL), such as a 鈥榤ay contain鈥� statement.

If you have an allergy or intolerance

You should not assume that a product labelled as vegan is safe to eat if you have a food allergy or intolerance to:

• milk
• eggs
• crustaceans
• fish
• molluscs

Food safety labels such as 鈥榝ree-from鈥� or 鈥榓llergen-free鈥� are a guarantee that the specified allergen is not in the product. Food businesses who produce 鈥榝ree-from鈥� or 鈥榓llergen-free鈥� food products must follow strict processes to prevent cross-contamination.

However, businesses do not have to follow these processes to label food as vegan, so there is still a chance of cross-contamination with allergens of animal origin.