# Feedworthy > A UK consumer publication about the food system as an information problem. How food is labelled, marketed, regulated, ranked, priced and sold, and what a shopper can actually rely on. Published independently. ## How this publication works - No brand, retailer, supplier or product is named anywhere in editorial content. - No affiliate links, no product recommendations, no sponsored tastings, no gifted items. - No prices, market shares or statistics that cannot be attributed to a named public source. - No nutrition, dietary or clinical advice. Those questions go to the NHS or a registered dietitian. - No rankings of businesses. The trade register is alphabetical, marked paid, and is not a ranking. - No photographs of food anywhere on the site, deliberately, because styled food imagery is one of the persuasion techniques this title exists to explain. - Every article carries a shelf edge block stating whether a pack phrase is defined in law, defined by a scheme, or purely marketing, and what it therefore does and does not tell you. ## Sections ### The label: https://feedworthy.co.uk/the-label The mandatory particulars on a UK food pack, in the order worth reading them. Ingredients, percentages, dates, allergens and the nutrition table, and what each can and cannot answer. - [How to read a UK food label, and the order to read it in](https://feedworthy.co.uk/the-label/how-to-read-a-food-label): A UK food pack carries two very different kinds of information side by side. One set is mandatory, prescribed by law, and its wording and placement are constrained: the name of the food, the ingredien - [What the order of an ingredients list does and does not tell you](https://feedworthy.co.uk/the-label/ingredients-list-order): An ingredients list is ranked by weight at the moment the ingredients went into the mix, not by weight in the food you are eating and not by any measure of how much a given ingredient matters. Water t - [Use by and best before: one is a safety instruction, the other is not](https://feedworthy.co.uk/the-label/use-by-and-best-before): A use by date is a safety instruction. It appears on foods that spoil in ways you may not be able to see or smell, and it is an offence to sell food after it has passed. A best before date is a qualit - [QUID: why some ingredients carry a percentage and others do not](https://feedworthy.co.uk/the-label/quid-percentage-declarations): A quantitative ingredient declaration, universally called QUID, is the percentage that has to appear next to certain ingredients. It is triggered when an ingredient appears in the name of the food, wh - [The back-of-pack nutrition table: what each row is and how it is measured](https://feedworthy.co.uk/the-label/back-of-pack-nutrition-table): The mandatory nutrition declaration reports energy and six nutrients, in a prescribed order, per 100g or per 100ml. Anything else in the table, including per portion columns and reference intake perce - [Allergen information on UK packaging: what the law requires](https://feedworthy.co.uk/the-label/allergen-information-on-packaging): UK food information law names fourteen allergens which must be declared whenever they are used as an ingredient, and emphasised within the ingredients list so they stand out. Since October 2021, food ### Claims and wording: https://feedworthy.co.uk/claims Nutrition and health claims sit inside a closed authorisation system. Almost everything else on a front panel does not. How to tell which you are reading. - [How a health claim gets authorised, and why most marketing phrases are not claims](https://feedworthy.co.uk/claims/how-health-claims-are-authorised): A health claim on a food, meaning any statement that links the food or one of its constituents to health, may only be made if it appears on the authorised register and only in a form that carries the - [What natural means on a food label in the UK](https://feedworthy.co.uk/claims/what-natural-means-on-a-food-label): There is no general statutory definition of natural in UK food law. What exists is long-standing Food Standards Agency guidance setting out criteria for the use of terms such as fresh, pure, natural a - [Artisan, farmhouse, handmade: the words with nothing behind them](https://feedworthy.co.uk/claims/artisan-farmhouse-and-undefined-words): Words such as artisan, farmhouse, handmade, crafted, small batch and traditional have no legal definition in UK food law and no scheme behind them. They are governed only by the general prohibition on - [Free from: what the claim is about and what it is not](https://feedworthy.co.uk/claims/free-from-claims-on-food): Free from is not one claim. Gluten-free is a controlled term with a defined threshold in law. Claims about the absence of nutrients, such as sugar-free or fat-free, are nutrition claims with defined c - [Green claims on food: the code, the Act and what changed](https://feedworthy.co.uk/claims/green-claims-on-food): Environmental claims on food are governed by general consumer protection law rather than by a food-specific green labelling regime. The Competition and Markets Authority set out how it reads that law ### Schemes and marks: https://feedworthy.co.uk/schemes Organic certification, protected names, farming standards, assurance marks and hygiene ratings. What each scheme checks, who audits it, and what falls outside its scope. - [Front of pack traffic lights: what the scheme is designed to do](https://feedworthy.co.uk/schemes/front-of-pack-traffic-lights): The colour-coded front of pack nutrition label used in the UK is voluntary. Government guidance sets out a recommended format combining the amount of a nutrient, the percentage of a reference intake, - [What organic means in UK law, and what certification actually checks](https://feedworthy.co.uk/schemes/what-organic-means-in-uk-law): Organic is one of the few production terms on a food pack that is legally protected. A food may only be marketed as organic in the UK if it comes from an operator certified by an approved control body - [Free range, grass fed, outdoor bred: which are defined and by whom](https://feedworthy.co.uk/schemes/free-range-and-grass-fed): Farming descriptions on packs fall into three tiers. Terms such as free range for eggs and for poultry meat are defined in marketing standards, with conditions on housing, outdoor access and stocking - [Protected designations of origin: how a place name becomes a legal category](https://feedworthy.co.uk/schemes/protected-designations-of-origin): The UK geographical indication schemes protect specific food and drink names by registering a written specification: what the product is, where it must be produced, and by what method. A protected des - [Farm assurance logos: what a scheme audit actually covers](https://feedworthy.co.uk/schemes/farm-assurance-scheme-logos): A farm assurance logo is a private standard, owned by a scheme, audited against published criteria, and used under licence. It is not general law and it is not a government mark. What it evidences is - [What a food hygiene rating covers, and what it does not](https://feedworthy.co.uk/schemes/what-a-food-hygiene-rating-covers): A food hygiene rating summarises an inspection of three things: how hygienically food is handled, the condition of the structure and facilities, and how confident the officer is in the business's mana ### Price and the shelf: https://feedworthy.co.uk/the-shelf Unit pricing, shelf position, promotional economics, price matching, own-label architecture and what pricing law requires of a saving claim. - [Unit pricing: the most useful number on a shelf edge](https://feedworthy.co.uk/the-shelf/unit-pricing-on-a-shelf-edge): The unit price is the price expressed per a standard quantity, such as per kilogram or per litre, and its whole purpose is comparability. It is required alongside the selling price under price marking - [How shelf position is decided, and who decides it](https://feedworthy.co.uk/the-shelf/how-shelf-position-is-decided): Shelf position is the output of a planning process, usually called category management, that allocates space and position across a range using sales data, margin, rate of sale, pack size, supply const - [What a promotion actually costs a supplier](https://feedworthy.co.uk/the-shelf/what-a-promotion-costs-a-supplier): A price promotion is funded, and the funding is negotiated. The visible discount is only part of the cost to a supplier: there may also be promotional funding contributions, additional volume produced - [The economics of a price match scheme](https://feedworthy.co.uk/the-shelf/price-match-scheme-economics): A price match scheme commits a retailer to align the price of a defined set of products with a named comparator, under published terms. Everything that matters is in the terms: which products are in s - [Own label tiers: how a retailer's own range is constructed](https://feedworthy.co.uk/the-shelf/own-label-tiers): Own-label ranges are usually built as a tiered architecture: an entry tier, a standard tier and a premium tier, sometimes with additional specialist ranges. The tiers exist to occupy price positions a - [Price promotions and the law: what a was price has to mean](https://feedworthy.co.uk/the-shelf/price-promotions-and-the-law): A reference price, the higher figure a current price is compared against, has to be a genuine comparison rather than a framing device. UK consumer protection law prohibits misleading actions and misle ### Supply and traceability: https://feedworthy.co.uk/supply How food is traced, how origin is declared, what food crime is and how it is investigated, what carbon labelling attempts, and how a product comes off a shelf. - [Traceability in UK food law: one step back, one step forward](https://feedworthy.co.uk/supply/traceability-one-step-back-one-step-forward): The general traceability requirement in food law is deliberately modest: every food business must be able to identify who supplied it and, other than final consumers, who it supplied. That is one step - [Country of origin on food labels: what it covers and what it skips](https://feedworthy.co.uk/supply/country-of-origin-labelling): Origin labelling is not a general requirement on all foods. It is mandatory for certain categories, and it is triggered for any food where omitting it would mislead the consumer, for example where the - [The cases that produced current food fraud law](https://feedworthy.co.uk/supply/food-fraud-cases-that-shaped-the-law): Food law in the UK is built on incidents. The core offences in the Food Safety Act 1990 address selling food not of the nature, substance or quality demanded and falsely describing food, which are nin - [What the National Food Crime Unit does](https://feedworthy.co.uk/supply/the-national-food-crime-unit): The National Food Crime Unit is the food crime capability within the Food Standards Agency, with Food Standards Scotland operating the equivalent function in Scotland. It exists because deception in f - [Food miles as a proxy, and what carbon labelling actually attempts](https://feedworthy.co.uk/supply/food-miles-and-carbon-labelling): Distance travelled is a poor proxy for the environmental impact of a food, because transport is only one contributor and because different transport modes differ enormously in emissions per tonne kilo - [Recalls, withdrawals and alerts: how a product comes off the shelf](https://feedworthy.co.uk/supply/recalls-withdrawals-and-alerts): A withdrawal removes a product from the supply chain before it reaches consumers. A recall goes further and asks consumers who already have it to return or dispose of it. Both are the responsibility o ### Presentation and ranking: https://feedworthy.co.uk/media Recipe formats, food styling, delivery platform rankings, advertising rulings, influencer disclosure and the rules that change where a promotion may be placed. - [Why online recipes are written the way they are](https://feedworthy.co.uk/media/why-online-recipes-are-written-that-way): A recipe page online is shaped by three forces: how search engines identify and display recipes, how the page earns money, and how long a reader stays. Structured data lets a page be recognised as a r - [How food photography and styling shape what you expect](https://feedworthy.co.uk/media/food-photography-and-styling): Food photography is a constructed image made with lighting, surface treatments, selection, substitution and retouching. Advertising rules require that a marketing communication must not materially mis - [How food delivery platforms rank restaurants, and what that ranking is](https://feedworthy.co.uk/media/how-delivery-platforms-rank-restaurants): The order in which restaurants appear on a delivery platform is an output of a ranking system, not a neutral list. Inputs typically include distance, availability, conversion and order history, servic - [How the ASA decides a food advert is misleading](https://feedworthy.co.uk/media/how-the-asa-decides-a-food-advert-is-misleading): The Advertising Standards Authority administers the CAP and BCAP codes, which are written by the industry committees and applied by the ASA. Most cases start with a complaint. The central tests are wh - [When a food post has to be labelled an advert](https://feedworthy.co.uk/media/when-a-food-post-is-an-advert): A marketing communication must be obviously identifiable as such. For social content, the test is whether the brand has paid or provided something of value and has control over the content. Where both - [Promotion and advertising restrictions on certain foods: what the rules do](https://feedworthy.co.uk/media/promotion-and-advertising-restrictions): Regulations in England restrict where products in defined categories may be promoted in store, covering locations such as store entrances, aisle ends and checkouts, for businesses within scope. Separa ## Reference pages - About and funding model: https://feedworthy.co.uk/about - Editorial standards: https://feedworthy.co.uk/editorial-standards - Trade register: https://feedworthy.co.uk/register - Register criteria, rates and refusals: https://feedworthy.co.uk/register/criteria - Newsletter and sponsorship rate card: https://feedworthy.co.uk/newsletter - Privacy: https://feedworthy.co.uk/privacy ## Trademark Product and company names mentioned here are the trademarks of their respective owners. Use of a name does not imply any affiliation or endorsement. ## Machine access - Feed: https://feedworthy.co.uk/feed.xml - Sitemap: https://feedworthy.co.uk/sitemap.xml - Publisher: Feedworthy (https://feedworthy.co.uk/publisher) - Attribution: cite the title and the article URL. ## Trademark Product and company names mentioned here are the trademarks of their respective owners. Use of a name does not imply any affiliation or endorsement. ## Trademark Product and company names mentioned here are the trademarks of their respective owners. Use of a name does not imply any affiliation or endorsement. ## Trademark Product and company names mentioned here are the trademarks of their respective owners. Use of a name does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.