Most pre-packed foods need to have an ingredients list on the product label. Ingredients must be listed in descending order of weight. For compound ingredients (i.e. ingredients made from two or more ingredients), the components must be listed.

Food Allergens

The following must be included if present:

• Cereals containing gluten and products thereof (i.e. wheat, rye, barley, oats)
• Crustaceans and products thereof
• Eggs and products thereof
• Fish and products therof
• Peanuts and products thereof
• Soybeans and products thereof
• Milk and milk products (including lactose)
• Nuts (i.e. almond, hazelnut, walnut, cashew, pecan nut, Brazil nut, pistachio nut, macademia nut, Queensland nut) and products thereof
• Sesame seeds and products thereof
• Celery and products thereof (including celeriac)
• Mustard and products thereof
• Sulphur dioxide and sulphites at concentrations of more than 10mg/kg (or 10mg/litre expressed as S02)

Food Additives

These must always be listed if they have a function in the final food. They should be listed by category together with the specific name or E number of each:
e.g. "…. Stabilisers - Xanthan Gum and Guar Gum, Colour - Riboflavin"
or " ….. Stabilisers - E415 and E412, Colour - E101".
If an allergen listed above is present in the additive, this must be named, e.g. "soy lecithin".

If an additive is present but does not have a function in the final food (e.g. it is used as a processing aid), if an allergen listed above is present in the additive, this must be listed.

Quantitative Ingredient Declaration (QUID) Legislation

This requires that the quantity of certain ingredients, or categories of ingredients, used in the manufacture or preparation of the food must be given. The quantity of a ingredient should be included if any of the following circumstances apply:

• The ingredient appears in the name of the food, or is usually associated with the name of the food, e.g. "tomatoes" in Tomato Soup or "mutton" in Lancashire Hotpot.
• The ingredient is emphasised on the label, by words or pictures, e.g. the percentage of cream should be given if the label includes a statement such as "with real cream".
• The ingredient is essential to characterise the food and to distinguish it from other foods withwhich it might be confused because of its name or appearance, e.g. mayonnaise or marzipan.

The following are exemptions from the above rules:

• If the drained net weight of the ingredient is given, e.g. Tuna in Brine. The drained weight declaration on the label means that the amount of tuna does not need to also be given in the ingredients list.
• If the quantity of the ingredient is required to be given on the label to comply with other regulations, e.g. the Jam Regulations require the statement "Prepared with X g of fruit per 100g" to appear on the label. In this case the amount of fruit in a fruit jam does not need to also be given in the ingredients list.
• If the ingredient is used in a small quantity for flavouring purposes. For example, the amount of cinnamon would not need to be declared for "Apple Pie with Cinnamon".
• If the ingredient appears in the name of the food, but is not such as to influence the choice of the consumer. For example, the amount of corn in "Cornflakes" would not need to be stated because the variation in quantity is not essential to characterise the food nor to distinguish it from similar foods.
• If the food is predominantly a mixture of fruit or vegetables or nuts or spices or herbs and no ingredient in the mixture predominates, the quantity of an ingredient need not be given.
• The amount of sweetener or sugar does not need to be stated if the only trigger is that it appears in the name of the food.
• A QUID declaration need not be given for vitamins and minerals added to the product if their content is included in the nutrition information panel on the label.

Where given, the quantity of an ingredient should be expressed as a percentage, corresponding to the amount of the ingredient at the time of use. This percentage must appear either in, or immediately next to, the name of the food, or in the ingredients list, next to the relevant ingredient. For example, an ingredients list for Carrot and Coriander Soup might read:
"Water, Carrots (22%), Potatoes, Leeks, …… Coriander, Yeast Extract, Flavouring, Pepper Extract."

For Vegetable Soup, where the ingredients list gives each vegetable separately, the total percentage of vegetables could be given at the end of the ingredients list:
"Water, Peas, Carrots, Potatoes, Concentrated Tomato Puree, Onions, …….. Herb Extract, Yeast Extract. VEGETABLES: 29%".

For some products, if water has been lost from a food during processing, the quantities of ingredients may have a total of more than 100%. In these cases, the quantity declared should be the weight of the ingredient used to prepare 100g of the finished product. For example, in the manufacture of Tomato Ketchup, if say 126g of tomatoes are concentrated by removing water, skin and seeds and used to produce 100g of Ketchup, the label ingredients list would read:
"Tomatoes (126g per 100g Ketchup), Spirit Vinegar, Glucose Syrup,…….".

The statement "Contains a Source of Phenylalanine" is legally required to appear on the label of any food that contains aspartame. This is to help the small number of people who require a low phenylalanine diet to identify the fact that aspartame contains phenylalanine.

Any food that is packaged in a packaging gas to extend its shelf life must be labelled with the statement "packaged in a protective atmosphere."

If the product contains genetically modified ingredients, this must be indicated in the name of the product, or in the ingredients list next to the relevant ingredient.

For organic foods, the ingredients list should indicate which ingredients comply with organic standards. For example, an ingredients list for "Organic Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce" might read as follows:

" Beans* (52%), Tomatoes* (27%), Water, Sugar*, Salt, Cornflour, Spirit Vinegar*, Spices*
* Produced in accordance with organic farming standards "