Do I need food registration to sell prepacked food?

Unopened packets still count as a food business

Selling factory-sealed biscuits or snack packets is still selling food. The registration rules cover food businesses selling online as well as those storing, handling or distributing food. Registration is free; do not budget for a registration licence purchased from an intermediary.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, register at least 28 days before trading or food operations start. Scotland also requires registration at least 28 days before trading. When planning your first shipment, identify when you will actually begin storing or handling stock, rather than working backwards only from your website launch.

Map the operator and premises before completing the form

Registration follows the food business and its establishments. Official guidance requires registration of each site when you operate in more than one location. Food distribution, brokerage and supply businesses operating from an office are also covered even where no food is kept there.

Prepare the following premises map for the council. Use our home storage guide alongside it when your address is residential.

Resolve animal-origin approval separately

In England, certain establishments handling products of animal origin and supplying other establishments need approval. Scottish guidance likewise identifies businesses making, preparing or handling meat, fish, egg or dairy products for supply to other businesses as potentially needing approval instead of registration.

Send the council the actual product and process: ingredients, whether packs remain sealed, storage conditions and whether customers are consumers or other businesses. For example, describe a biscuit containing milk powder differently from a chilled dairy product; do not ask only whether you can sell 'Chinese snacks'. Ask the council to decide whether approval or an exemption applies. If approval is required, obtain it before operating.

Registration also leaves the import question unresolved. For a Great Britain destination, imported food must comply with applicable food law. Use our first high-risk food shipment guide to prepare a separate product-and-origin enquiry before ordering. For Northern Ireland, request destination-specific import and labelling advice.

Build a sealed-food check file, not just a registration receipt

Food safety management procedures must be based on HACCP principles. For this business, write down what you check when packets arrive, what makes you hold stock, and who authorises its release. The checks below are a practical starting point, not a universal laboratory test specification.

Keep the factory recipe, retail label and online listing together. Our Chinese recipe to UK food label guide helps organise that comparison. For online prepacked-food sales, mandatory allergen information must be available before purchase and at delivery; allergenic ingredients must be emphasised within the ingredients list.

Keep supplier and business-customer records that let you identify affected deliveries. Practise finding a batch using our factory-to-customer traceability guide. If supplied food is unsafe or fails legal requirements, official guidance calls for immediate withdrawal or recall and notification of the competent authority.

Worked example: your stock arrives before launch

Hypothetical example: an England-based online seller plans to launch on 1 March 2027. Its first food operation will also start that day. Registering on 1 February gives 28 days.

Now change one fact: sealed snack packets will arrive at the seller's home for business storage on 15 February 2027. The food-operation date is earlier than the launch date. Counting back 28 days gives 18 January 2027. Confirm the operation's start date with the council and arrange registration around that date.

For the registration-only route, retain the submission confirmation and have the food-safety and product checks ready for the start of operations. If approval is required, the registration timetable does not replace it. Adding a stall also warrants a separate venue enquiry; see our markets and pop-ups guide.

Use Chinese supplier meetings to obtain the missing facts

SIAL Shanghai is a named food-and-beverage sourcing fair at the Shanghai New International Expo Center. If you use its exhibitors to shortlist prepacked foods, request the complete ingredient specification and photographs of the actual export packs before discussing a UK launch date.

Bring a specific question sheet: who manufactures this recipe, which ingredients are compound ingredients, how are formula changes communicated, what dates and storage instructions appear on the export pack, and how are retail batches linked to shipments? These are suggested buying questions; a fair listing does not answer them.

Cambridge China Bridge's testing and certification service is the relevant service to discuss when the recipe, packaging or proposed sale raises a testing question. Bring the council's unanswered questions and the exact product specification so the scope can be agreed.