PPDS labelling software
For the labels you print every week.
Working out which products are PPDS is a one-afternoon job. Keeping their labels correct through recipe changes, supplier reformulations and new staff is the part that lasts for years.
From £9 a month · 14-day trial · no card to start
Chicken & Pesto Sandwich
Ingredients: Bread (WHEAT flour, water, yeast, salt), Cooked chicken breast, Pesto (basil, sunflower oil, CASHEW nuts, hard cheese (MILK), garlic, salt), Mayonnaise (rapeseed oil, EGG yolk, vinegar, MUSTARD), Rocket.
Start here
Which of your products actually need a label.
PPDS applies to food, not to businesses. Most counters hold a mix. Sorting them once saves arguing about it later.
Needs a label
- Packed before the customer chose it
- Sandwiches made at 8am for the lunch rush
- Brownies boxed on the counter
- Salad pots with lids on
- Anything packed at your unit and sold at a market
Doesn’t
- Cake on an open stand
- A sandwich built to order
- Chips bagged at the till
- Pastries under a dome
- Hot drinks
Check carefully
- Items under a hot lamp, already boxed
- Products packed at home for a stall
- Food supplied to another business (different rules)
- Trays made up for a school or care home
- Anything wrapped “ready to grab”
Day to day
What using it looks like on a Tuesday.
Not the demo version. The version where the oven is on and someone needs forty labels in ten minutes.
- 01
Reprint
Open a saved product, download the PDF, print. Nothing to rebuild and nothing to remember.
- 02
New product
Pull ingredients you already have, add the two new ones, set quantities, print.
- 03
Recipe tweak
Change the quantity, the list reorders itself, print the new version.
- 04
Supplier change
Update the ingredient once. See every product that needs a fresh label.
Mobile matters more here than in most software
A lot of this happens standing up, holding a tub, on a phone. Every screen works at phone width — because the alternative is walking to the office and doing it later, which is how labels end up out of date.
Printing
Your label stock, your printer.
LabelClear produces a PDF at the dimensions you give it. That works with a thermal label printer, a sheet-fed office printer, or a print shop.
| Format | Typical use |
|---|---|
| Single label PDF | Thermal printers, roll stock |
| A4 sheet | Standard sheet labels, 21 or 24 per page |
| Custom dimensions | Anything your supplier sells |
On a small label the constraint is legibility, not space — the UK font size rules set a floor of 1.2 mm x-height, or 0.9 mm on very small packs.
Chocolate Chip Cookie
Ingredients: WHEAT flour, Butter (MILK), MILK chocolate chips (sugar, cocoa butter, whole MILK powder, cocoa mass, emulsifier: SOYA lecithin), Caster sugar, Soft brown sugar, Free range EGG, Bicarbonate of soda, Sea salt.
Salted Caramel Brownie
Ingredients: Caster sugar, Butter (MILK), Free range EGGS, Dark chocolate (cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, emulsifier: SOYA lecithin), WHEAT flour, Salted caramel (sugar, cream (MILK), butter (MILK), sea salt), Cocoa powder.
Two years from now
Change control, without the paperwork.
Labelling tends to go wrong in one predictable way: something changed, and the labels didn’t.
Dark chocolate
New supplier declaration saved
Soya lecithin replaced with sunflower lecithin.
2 saved products use this ingredient
- Chocolate Brownie — label needs reprinting
- Salted Caramel Brownie — label needs reprinting
Example, using the sample products on this site. In your account this lists your own products.
Front of house
The matrix comes free with the products.
Because it is generated from the same data as the labels, it cannot quietly disagree with them.
| Product | Gluten | Eggs | Soya | Milk | Nuts | Mustard |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chocolate Brownie | Cereals containing gluten: present | Eggs: present | Soya: present | Milk: present | Nuts: not present | Mustard: not present |
| Salted Caramel Brownie | Cereals containing gluten: present | Eggs: present | Soya: present | Milk: present | Nuts: not present | Mustard: not present |
| Chicken & Pesto Sandwich | Cereals containing gluten: present | Eggs: present | Soya: not present | Milk: present | Nuts: present | Mustard: present |
Showing 6 of the 14 allergens — the ones present in these example products.
Official sources
LabelClear helps you prepare PPDS labels in line with these sources. Your business remains responsible for the accuracy of what goes on the pack.
- Introduction to allergen labelling for PPDS foodFood Standards Agency / GOV.UK
- Labelling guidance for prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) food productsFood Standards Agency / GOV.UK
- Food allergen labelling and information requirements technical guidanceFood Standards Agency / GOV.UK
Plans
From £9 a month.
Published pricing, a trial with no card, and a free generator that never expires.
- Starter£9/month · up to 20 products
- Business£19/month · up to 500 products
- Multi-site£39/month · up to 2,000 products
Questions
Operational detail
We only have six products. Is software overkill?
Will it print to our thermal label printer?
Can we run two sites from one account?
How do we handle seasonal products?
What about products that aren't PPDS?
Print one and see how it looks
The free generator produces the same PDF the paid product does. Try it on your smallest label.