Printable food labels: what to include, with a free template

Selling jam at the farmers' market, brownies at the school fair or chutney in a local shop? Every jar and box needs a clear label. Here's a free template with the usual fields laid out, ready to print.

Download the Word template · PDF to fill in by hand

The template

Eight labels per A4 sheet, each 105 x 74 mm, with space for:

• Product name, e.g. "Seville orange marmalade"
• Ingredients, with allergens in bold
• Net weight
• Best before (or use by for perishable foods)
• Batch code
• Made by: your name or business and address

Filling in the ingredients

1. List them in descending order of weight.
2. Emphasise the 14 allergens wherever they appear, for example in bold: milk, eggs, cereals containing gluten, nuts, peanuts, sesame, soya, mustard, celery, fish, crustaceans, molluscs, lupin, and sulphites above the threshold.
3. For compound ingredients, like chocolate chips in a cookie, list their ingredients in brackets.

In the Word file you can type straight onto each line and make allergens bold. On the PDF, write allergens in capitals.

Food made and sold on the same premises

Since October 2021, food that is prepacked for direct sale (made and packed on the premises before a customer orders, like a sandwich in a café fridge) needs a label with the name and a full ingredients list with allergens emphasised. Rules differ for different types of food and business, so check the Food Standards Agency guidance or ask your local authority for your case. Our guide to food label requirements gives an overview.

A note on "gluten free"

"Gluten free" is a regulated claim with a strict limit. Only use it if your product and process meet the rules; "no gluten-containing ingredients" is not the same thing.

Printing

The template matches our A4 sheet of 8 labels, 105 x 74 mm. Print at actual size after a plain-paper test. For jars that go in the fridge, a laser print or a permanent marker holds up better.

When to move to printed rolls

If you sell every week, printed labels with your branding look more professional and go on faster. We print food labels on a roll, with a blank area for batch and dates if you need to add them later.