Exporting to the United Kingdom. The costliest rule is on the label.
With the United Kingdom the talk is always about customs and checks. The rule that really changes the sums is an address line on the pack.
Since 1 January 2024 the label needs a UK address. GOV.UK writes that prepacked food sold in Great Britain must carry a UK address for the responsible operator; if the operator isn't in the UK, the UK importer's address is given. It must be a physical address: an email or phone number isn't enough.
Since 31 January 2025 the safety declaration is needed. Goods imported from the European Union into Great Britain must be covered by an entry summary declaration, submitted on the S&S GB platform. Legal responsibility lies with the carrier, who often asks someone else to submit it on its behalf.
The pre-notification must be made at least one working day ahead on the IPAFFS system, and can be submitted up to thirty days before. The health certificate is needed for goods classified as medium risk, not for all.
This guide applies to food in general. For two products the path changes before the country does: wine travels with excise and its accompanying document, and olive oil has marketing and labelling standards all of its own. Whoever exports one of the two to the United Kingdom reads this guide and the product one.
This piece is part of the guide to export operations for the small food producer. If you are looking for the EUR.1 for a British shipment, the answer is that it doesn't exist in this relationship: the reason is in EUR.1 or certificate of origin.
The template, to download
Twelve rows in the order in which problems arise: risk category and composite products first of all, then the label with the UK address, the health documents, the safety declaration, origin without EUR.1 and the shipment. Each row carries the GOV.UK page to reopen. At the bottom, five cells for the data that decides everything: risk category, composite product, address on the label, REX number, who submits the safety declaration.
| File | What it contains | Link |
|---|---|---|
| United KingdomExcel, one sheet | Twelve rows with the source, the Status drop-down column and the five cells for the data that decides the rest. |
The files are free. There is no form in front of them, we don't ask for an address and we receive no notification when someone downloads them. The sheet reports only what was in force at the reading of 6 September 2026, no future deadlines: the British schedule of checks has been rewritten several times.
The UK address on the label
It is the obligation that costs most, because it touches printing and not paperwork. Until 31 December 2023 a product sold in Great Britain could use an EU, UK or Northern Irish address. Since 1 January 2024 that option is closed: a UK address is needed.
For an Italian producer the consequence is direct: without a UK base, your importer's address goes on the label. Which means the label destined for Great Britain is tied to that buyer, and changing buyer means reprinting.
It is also why a British supply agreement should be discussed together with the artwork, not afterwards. GOV.UK specifies that it must be a physical address where the business can be contacted by post, and that an email address or phone number can't be used.
A British label carries the name of whoever imports you. As long as that agreement holds, so does the printed batch.
The safety declaration, since 31 January 2025
Since 31 January 2025 all goods imported from the European Union into Great Britain must be covered by a safety declaration, the entry summary declaration, submitted in advance on the S&S GB platform. The dataset was reduced on exactly that date: twenty mandatory fields, eight conditional, nine optional.
Legal responsibility lies with the carrier moving the goods across the British border. In practice the carrier often asks the importer, or another party in the chain, to submit it on its behalf: it pays to know in advance who will do it for your shipments, because a missing declaration holds up the load.
Pre-notification and certificate: two different things
The IPAFFS pre-notification and the health certificate get confused because they arrive together, but they are distinct obligations with different parties. The British importer submits the pre-notification; the certificate is issued by the authority of the country of departure, that is, your ASL.
| Obligation | Who does it and when | When you need it |
|---|---|---|
| IPAFFS pre-notificationimport notification | The British importer submits it, at least one working day before arrival at the point of entry. It can be submitted up to thirty days before. |
For products of animal origin and for high-risk food and feed of non-animal origin. |
| Health certificateexport health certificate | The authority of the country of departure signs it. GOV.UK writes that «medium risk imports need a health certificate» and that it must be issued in the country where the product was last exported from, processed or inspected. |
For goods classified as medium risk. For low-risk goods a commercial document is needed and the certificate isn't required. |
| Safety declarationentry summary declaration | Legal responsibility of the carrier, submitted in advance on the S&S GB platform. |
For all goods imported from the European Union into Great Britain since 31 January 2025. |
The operational question to ask the buyer on day one is just one: which risk category our product falls into. Everything else follows from that answer, and asking it after agreeing a delivery date means discovering too late that three weeks were needed.
Composite products, where people get lost
The category that generates most uncertainty is composite products, defined by GOV.UK as products containing processed animal products and plant products that are both integral, with the example of a lasagne with minced meat, tomato sauce and wheat pasta.
Many Italian products land here without anyone noticing: a sauce with a small percentage of cheese, a preserve with butter, a filling with eggs. The customs and health treatment changes compared with a pure plant product, and it should be checked on the recipe, not the commercial category.
The customs preference is claimed another way
Between the European Union and the United Kingdom the EUR.1 isn't used. The preference is claimed with a statement on origin made by the exporter, or on the basis of the importer's knowledge. For shipments above €6,000 the European exporter must state their REX number.
Whoever doesn't know this ships without a statement, the buyer pays full duty and the second offer arrives already at a disadvantage compared with a competitor who writes that line. It is a mistake that causes no hold-up and so goes unnoticed for months.
The dates, and why we report them with their check
The British schedule of import checks has been rewritten several times since 2021, with postponements announced and then moved. For this reason, instead of listing future deadlines, this page reports only what is already in force, with the date on which the source was read.
The GOV.UK pages cited were opened on 6 September 2026. The guidance on importing products of animal origin states a last update of 22 April 2025; the labelling guidance 20 September 2022. Before printing a batch or signing a supply agreement, reopen them: it is the kind of subject where a page from six months ago may already be out of date.
When deadlines no longer fit in anyone's head
A single market can be run from memory. The United Kingdom together with another non-EU country, with different dates, different documents and a label that depends on the buyer, can't: at that point what gets lost isn't a rule, it is a date.
That is when deadlines should be taken out of memory and put in a place that watches them on its own, with operational deadline alerts. With a constraint that matters more than the technology, written in Ethics: the system prepares and flags, but no document goes out without a person having read and approved it.
The risk category decides everything else, and it can't be worked out from this page. If you write to us with your product and its ingredient list, we tell you whether it counts as a composite product and what that entails, before you find out from your importer. Free, and nothing else follows from it.
A person replies, the same one who then builds the systems, within 24 hours, with a reading of the situation and not with a quote. You write from here, and one line is enough.
Questions and answers
Do you need a UK address on the label to sell in the United Kingdom?
Yes, since 1 January 2024. GOV.UK writes that prepacked food sold in Great Britain must carry a UK address for the responsible food business operator. If the operator isn't in the UK, the UK importer's address is given.
It must be a physical address where the business can be contacted by post: an email address or phone number can't be used. For an Italian producer it means the British label is tied to their importer.
What is the IPAFFS pre-notification and who makes it?
It is the import notification that must be submitted on the British IPAFFS system before the goods arrive. The importer in the United Kingdom submits it, at least one working day before arrival at the point of entry, and it can be submitted up to thirty days before.
It concerns products of animal origin and high-risk food and feed of non-animal origin. The Italian producer doesn't submit it, but must give the buyer the data they need to fill it in.
Do you need a health certificate to export food to the United Kingdom?
It depends on the product's risk category. GOV.UK writes that imports classified as medium risk need a health certificate, issued in the country where the product was last exported from, processed or inspected. For low-risk products a commercial document is needed instead.
The question to ask the buyer on day one is which category your product falls into: whether you need three weeks of lead time or none depends on that answer.
What is the safety declaration for imports from the European Union?
Since 31 January 2025 all goods imported from the European Union into Great Britain must be covered by an entry summary declaration, submitted in advance on the S&S GB platform. On the same date the dataset was reduced to twenty mandatory fields, eight conditional and nine optional.
Legal responsibility lies with the carrier moving the goods across the border, but the carrier often asks another party in the chain to submit it on its behalf. It pays to know in advance who will do it, because a missing declaration holds up the load.
What are composite products and why do they matter?
GOV.UK defines them as products containing processed animal products and plant products that are both integral, with the example of a lasagne made of minced meat, tomato sauce and wheat pasta.
Many Italian products fall into this without anyone suspecting it: a sauce with a small share of cheese, a preserve with butter, a filling with eggs. The treatment changes compared with a pure plant product, and it should be checked on the recipe and not the commercial category.
Notes on sources
- GOV.UK, Import animal products for human consumption to Great Britain, for the IPAFFS pre-notification, the risk categories, the health certificate and the definition of composite product. Page opened on 6 September 2026, last update stated 22 April 2025.
- GOV.UK, Food labelling: giving food information to consumers, for the UK address obligation since 1 January 2024 and the exclusion of email and phone. Page opened on 6 September 2026, last update stated 20 September 2022.
- GOV.UK, Get ready for safety and security declaration requirements, for the date of 31 January 2025, the S&S GB platform, the breakdown of fields and the carrier's responsibility.
- GOV.UK, Claiming preferential rates of duty between the UK and EU, for the statement on origin, the importer's knowledge and the €6,000 REX threshold.
- This page doesn't list future deadlines of the British border target operating model. That schedule has been rewritten several times since 2021 and a list of announced dates goes stale before it is read: only what is already in force at the date of checking appears here.
The British label is decided together with the contract, not afterwards.
If the address on the label is your importer's, the artwork and the commercial agreement are the same problem. With Itria we start from the outside to build custom digital systems for exporters. For you that translates into more requests, fewer losses and less manual work. Write us a line about what weighs on you. We take the first step: what a buyer sees when they look you up, and what we found there. Even if we don't end up working together.