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Food Law

UK Food Labelling

Last updated: 17 August, 2018

Historical Development of Legal Controls (1943-1996)

This page provides, in reverse chronological order, access to the main UK regulations on food labelling between 1943 and 1996 as well as some supporting documents. The links provide access to only those for England and Wales - for Scotland and Northern Ireland, separate controls were issued from the mid-1950s.

Note: Although the legal requirements for labelling were primarily contained in the general food labelling regulations listed below, there were numerous additional requirements for specific foods or food categories that were imposed in other specific regulations. Those additionl regulations are not included here.

Summary

During the early part of the twentieth century, there was a slow development of food controls primarily linked to the protection of consumers' health. There was though a debate about the value of having specific food standards and general labelling rules. The Food and Drugs Act 1938 provided for the first time a general offence for all foods. Section 6 of that Act made it an offence to sell a food (or drug) which had a label which “falsely describes that food or drug, or is otherwise calculated to mislead as to its nature, substance or quality” unless the seller was able to demonstrate that they did not know that the label incorrect. In addition, Section 8 of the Act (relating to the power to make regulations) included authority for the Minister of Health to issue regulations for the purpose of “requiring wrappers or containers enclosing or containing food of various kinds to be labelled or marked in accordance with the Regulations.”

The outbreak of the Second World War meant that the power to make labelling regulation was not immediately acted on. Responsibility for food supply and its quality was given to a newly established Ministry of Food. In 1943, emergency “defence” legislation was used to replace the provisions of the Food and Drugs Act 1938 relating to labelling - in addition to relating to the sale of food, the new powers extended the offence to the display of food. The background to this was described in a brief White Paper (“The Labelling and Advertising of Foods” – see below). Using these new powers, in 1944 the Minister of Food issued the first “Labelling of Food Order, 1944”. This was subject to various revisions and extensions with revised versions being issued. As the supply of food remained difficult for several years after the end of the war, the defence powers were retained. In 1953 an updated version of the Order was introduced and, although it was amended, it was largely replaced with the adoption of the Labelling of Food Regulations 1967 (although it was only fully revoked from 1st January 1973 by the subsequent 1970 Regulations).

With the UK joining the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973, subsequent labelling controls have been influenced by Directives adopted by the EEC (and, subsequently, the European Communities (EC) and European Union (EU)). The content of the Directives had to be written into the UK regulations. The list below concludes with the Food Labelling Regulations 1996. These Regulations were however also amended on numerous occasions as a result of further modifications to the agreed EU controls (for more details, see the UK section of the Food Labelling in the European Union - Archive Page). In 2011 there was a complete updating of the EU requirements with the adoption of a Regulation on the “Provision of Food Information to Consumers”. As an EU Regulation, UK provisions no longer contain details of the legal requirements - the Regulation has to be consulted.

1996

1994

1993

1990

1989

1984

1982

1980

1972

1970

1967

1961

1959

1958

1955

1953

1952

1951

1950

1949

1948

1947

1946

1945

1944

1943

Page first provided: 17 August 2018