Making wedding chocolates to sell

Some chocolatiers start at a kitchen table, making favours for a friend's wedding. Once they start selling boxes to the public, they may be running a food business.

Registering as a food business

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) says anyone who sells, cooks, stores, handles, prepares or distributes food may be a food business. A food business must register with its local authority. That includes one run from home or one that sells only online.

Register at least 28 days before you start trading. The FSA says registration is free and cannot be refused.

Your kitchen and your records

Every food business needs a food safety management system. GOV.UK describes it as a written set of processes, checks, rules and records. It must follow the principles of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP).

In practice, that means finding the hazards to avoid, the points in your work where you control them, and the checks that show it is working. The FSA's Safer Food, Better Business pack is one way to meet this.

The FSA says a food hygiene certificate is not compulsory, though it recommends one. The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health explains the different levels.

If you use your kitchen at home for the business, you must keep it clean and in good repair.

Labelling a box

A box of chocolates packed before it is sold is prepacked food. You must label it with the name of the food and a list of ingredients, with the allergens in it. It must also give the weight, a best before or use by date, and the name and address of the business.

The name of the food and the weight must sit in the same field of vision. The required information must be printed with a minimum x-height of 1.2 millimetres, or 0.9 millimetres if the largest side of the pack is under 80 square centimetres.

Food law lists 14 allergens that you must declare. Each time one appears in the ingredients list, it must be emphasised, for example in bold.

Chocolates packed where they are sold are prepacked for direct sale (PPDS). Boxes you pack yourself and then sell at a market stall or a wedding fair count too. Since 1 October 2021, the rule known as Natasha's Law means their label must show the name of the food and a full ingredients list, with the allergens emphasised. The rule doesn't cover PPDS food sold online or by phone.

The names chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate each have a legal minimum content. In England it's in Schedule 1 of the Cocoa and Chocolate Products (England) Regulations 2003.

Under regulation 6, a label for chocolate or milk chocolate must also show the cocoa solids as a "% minimum". Milk chocolate shows its milk solids the same way. A label must also say if the chocolate contains vegetable fats other than cocoa butter. A box of mixed chocolates can be called "assorted chocolates", with one ingredients list for the box.

Selling online

When food is sold online or by phone, the required information must be available free before the customer buys. It must be given again when the food is delivered. Date marks such as best before are the one exception at the ordering stage.

Allergen information has to be given at both of those stages too. The food must arrive in a state that keeps it safe to eat.

A customer's usual right to cancel an online order does not cover goods made to their specification or clearly personalised. Nor does it cover goods that go off quickly. These exceptions are in regulation 28 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013.

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