Food Supplements
Selling food supplements in Great Britain means treating them as food, not medicine. They fall under the Food Supplements (England) Regulations 2003 and related rules, overseen by the Food Standards Agency, with permitted vitamins and minerals, strict labelling, and a hard line against medicinal claims.
At Taylored Consultancy Ltd, we make food supplement compliance clear and stress-free. From ingredients and permitted forms to labelling and claims, we make sure your products meet UK requirements - without straying into medicines territory.
Clearing the path to market -
regulatory and quality expertise that gets your food supplements compliant, safe, and ready for market.
We check your formulation against the GB permitted vitamins and minerals (and their approved forms), maximum levels, and any novel food considerations.
If an ingredient wasn't widely consumed before 1997, it may need authorisation under the GB novel foods regime. We help you assess and navigate this.
We review your labelling against UK food information rules - active ingredient declarations, recommended daily dose, warnings and the "not a substitute for a varied diet" statement.
We check your claims against the GB Nutrition and Health Claims Register to keep them compliant - and ensure you avoid prohibited medicinal claims.
We can act as your UK Food Business Operator. Absorbing your products into our quality management system (QMS) we ensure your products are compliant and remain compliant on the market.
We review your products end-to-end and identify anything that needs fixing before launch.
We help you put a robust HACCP-based food safety system in place, as required under food hygiene law.
We help you prepare for ISO 22000 or GFSI-recognised certification (BRCGS, FSSC 22000, IFS), often required by retailers and contract manufacturers.
Regulations can feel like a headache, but they don't have to be. We make sure you're covered, compliant, and ready to sell - without unnecessary delays or legal pitfalls.
ISO 22000 - Food safety management
HACCP - Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points
GFSI-recognised certifications (usually BRCGS, FSSC 22000, IFS)
ISO 9001 - General quality management
You don't need blanket pre-market approval from the Food Standards Agency to sell a standard food supplement in Great Britain, but you are responsible for making sure it complies with the Food Supplements (England) Regulations 2003, including permitted ingredients, labelling and claims, before it goes on sale. If any ingredient is novel, that does need separate authorisation.
The GB Nutrition and Health Claims Register lists the health and nutrition claims you're legally allowed to make about a food or supplement in Great Britain, along with the conditions attached to each one. Any claim on your label or marketing that isn't on the register, or doesn't meet its conditions, risks enforcement action. We check every claim against the register before you print a single label.
Botanicals on the UK's 'on hold' list can generally continue to be sold with their traditional health claims while a full assessment is pending, but this is a transitional position, not a permanent green light, and the rules around it are easy to misread. Make sure you have the relevant evidence on file for any 'on hold' claims being used. We check where your specific botanical sits on the list and what that actually means for your claims and labelling.
A novel food is any ingredient that wasn't used to a significant degree for human consumption in the UK before 15 May 1997, and it applies to plenty of trending ingredients, from certain algae extracts to some CBD products and novel probiotic strains. If your ingredient qualifies, it needs authorisation before sale. We assess your formulation against the GB novel foods regime early, so it doesn't derail your launch date.
UK food supplement labels must meet general food information rules covering ingredient listing, allergens, net quantity and business details, alongside supplement-specific requirements like stating the recommended daily dose and a warning not to exceed it. Any nutrition or health claim also has to match what's approved in the GB claims register. We review labels line by line against every applicable rule before they go to print.
If you're selling food supplements into Great Britain, having a UK Food Business Operator responsible for compliance is a practical necessity, particularly for imported products, since someone needs to be accountable for the product's safety and legality on the ground. We offer Food Business Operator representation as part of our UK service, so overseas brands have that coverage without setting up a UK entity.
It's usually a straightforward handover rather than a regulatory hurdle. Your new Food Business Operator takes on responsibility for the product's safety and legality on the ground, confirms your labelling, claims and formulation documentation are current, and updates the FBO details attached to the product. We manage that transition directly with your outgoing provider, so there's no gap in your compliance cover while the switch takes place.
A UK Food Business Operator is the party accountable for a food supplement's safety and legality once it's on the Great Britain market, which covers keeping your labelling, claims and safety documentation in order, handling any product safety concerns or recalls, and acting as the contact point for Trading Standards or the FSA if a question arises. It's an ongoing responsibility for as long as the product is on sale, not a one-off registration step, as such horizon scanning is a vital task of the FBO.
Yes, we review food supplement advertising and marketing against the UK Advertising Standards Authority's CAP Code, which is particularly strict on nutrition and health claims and takes a close interest in supplement advertising. Getting your wording right before an ad goes live is far less costly than responding to an ASA complaint or ruling afterwards, so we build it into claims review rather than treating it as a separate step.
Still have questions? Contact us and we'll be happy to help.
