Lot marking under the Food (Lot Marking) Regulations 1996
What the Food (Lot Marking) Regulations 1996 require for food sold in Great Britain: the lot indication, the letter "L", placement, exceptions, enforcement and how the text has been amended.
The basic requirement
The Food (Lot Marking) Regulations 1996 extend to Great Britain and took effect on 1 July 1996. They concern food intended for sale for human consumption.
Subject to the exceptions in regulation 4, nobody may sell food that forms part of a lot unless a lot marking indication goes with it. A lot is a batch of sales units of food produced, manufactured or packaged under similar conditions. A lot marking indication is one that allows the lot to which a sales unit belongs to be identified. "Sell" covers offering or exposing for sale and having in possession for sale.
A producer, manufacturer, packager or the first seller established within the United Kingdom decides which lot the food belongs to. The indication is determined and affixed under the responsibility of one of those operators.
Format and placement
The indication has to be preceded by the letter "L". The one carve-out applies where the indication can be clearly told apart from the other indications on the food's packaging or on a label attached to the packaging.
Where food is prepacked, the indication appears on the packaging or on a label attached to it. Where food is not prepacked, it appears on the container or on a commercial document that travels with the food. Whichever applies, it has to be easily visible, clearly legible and indelible.
Exceptions
Regulation 4 sets out the situations in which the lot marking requirement is disapplied. Among them are:
- sales units in a container whose largest side measures under 10 square centimetres in area;
- sales units bearing a date of minimum durability or "use by" date that includes, as a minimum, the day and month in that order and in uncoded form;
- a sale straight to the ultimate consumer where the food is loose, is packed because the purchaser asked for it, or is prepacked for immediate sale;
- prepacked single portions sold to be eaten straight away and meant as a minor accompaniment to another food or to a service;
- certain agricultural product sales on leaving the holding where it was produced, and individual ice cream portions supplied in bulk packaging that carries the lot marking indication;
- sales units of food that are qualifying Northern Ireland goods, and certain EU Annex 15 wine that meets the Directive 2011/91/EU rules of the member State it was exported from (or, in some cases, labelled in).
Enforcement
Contravening the lot marking requirement is an offence. On summary conviction, the fine may not go above level 5 on the standard scale. Each food authority enforces the Regulations in its own area, although the definition of food authority leaves out certain district councils in non-metropolitan counties in England and the Inner and Middle Temple treasurer. Where a Scottish partnership commits an offence through a partner's consent, connivance or neglect, that partner is also guilty.
Several provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 apply, including extended meaning of sale (section 2), offences due to the fault of another person (section 20) and the due diligence defence (section 21).
Amendments
The text has changed since 1996. On 13 December 2014 amendments were made by three separate instruments: the Food Information Regulations 2014 (England), the Food Information (Wales) Regulations 2014 and the Food Information (Scotland) Regulations 2014. Further changes took effect on 31 December 2020 after EU exit, including the addition of the Northern Ireland goods exception. The Wine (Amendment) Regulations 2021 added the EU Annex 15 wine exception from 1 January 2022.
The versions are not identical. Separate versions of regulation 2 exist for England and Wales and for Scotland, with some definitions differing. In addition, Wales removed the transitional exception in regulation 4(f) in 2018. That exception covered sales of units marked or labelled before 1 July 1992 and certain re-usable, indelibly marked glass bottles sold before 1 January 1997.
The current status and latest text are published at legislation.gov.uk.
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