Ingredients lists, allergens and nutrition, worked out from the recipe

What it does

• PPDS labels for Natasha’s Law — the name of the food, the full ingredients list with compound ingredients broken down, and the allergens emphasised every time they appear.
• The nutrition declaration — energy, fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, protein and salt, per 100 g and per portion.
• Allergens found for you — the fourteen groups of Annex II are derived from your ingredients, including the ones hidden in a dressing or a spice mix.
• Your own ingredients — enter values from a supplier’s specification wherever the built-in tables do not have the product.

Which rules it follows

Foodlex works to Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011. Great Britain kept that regulation in a UK version, and Northern Ireland applies the EU version under the Windsor Framework. We compared the UK text with the current EU text word for word: the nutrition declaration, the allergen list, the 1.2 mm minimum font size and the date marks are the same.

There is no separate UK mode. Where the UK differs, you check it — the guide to the differences lists them. In short: mandatory information must be in English (choose English as the label language), a business outside the UK names its UK importer, and the UK still treats emulsifiers made from mustard-derived behenic acid as mustard — which is how Foodlex flags them anyway.

What it does not do

• No traffic light graphic. It is voluntary; the values behind it are the ones Foodlex calculates.
• No HFSS nutrient profiling score.
• No UK composition tables (CoFID) yet — the built-in data is German, American and French, plus your own values.
• Billing is in euros.

Frequently asked questions

Is Foodlex built for UK food law?

Foodlex works to Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011. In Great Britain that regulation continues in a UK version, and for the nutrition declaration, the allergen list, the font size and the date marks the two are word for word the same. There is no separate UK mode: the few points where the UK differs, such as English as the mandatory language or the address of a UK importer, are yours to check.

Can I make Natasha's Law labels with Foodlex?

A label for food prepacked for direct sale needs the name of the food, the ingredients list and the fourteen allergens emphasised. Foodlex builds all three from your recipe, in English, with the allergens in bold — the one form of emphasis that both the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland name.

Which nutrition data does Foodlex use?

The German Bundeslebensmittelschlüssel (BLS 4.0) with over 7,000 foods, plus the USDA database and the French CIQUAL table, which you can switch on. The UK composition tables (CoFID) are not built in yet. You can always enter your own values for an ingredient.

What does it cost?

There is a free plan without a credit card. Paid plans are billed in euros; the current prices are on the pricing page.

UK guides

• Natasha’s Law: what goes on a PPDS label
• UK food labelling regulations — what differs from the EU
• HFSS explained — the nutrient profiling score
• Traffic light labelling — the thresholds