Guide
Is a cake in a box PPDS?
Often yes: if you place a whole cake or slices into a box before the customer chooses that cake, and you sell it from the same premises, it is typically PPDS and needs a name plus full ingredients list with allergens emphasised on or firmly attached to the box.
Reviewed against official guidance.SourcesNot legal advice.
Boxed before selection
Display cakes already boxed, or slices in hinged packs on a counter, are packed before selection. The box is the packaging. Put the label where it stays with the food — lid, side panel or sealed bag inside.
Celebration and wedding cakes
Cakes baked and boxed for a named customer after they ordered a specific design may not be PPDS in the same way as anonymous display stock — but allergen information must still be correct. When cakes are made for general sale and boxed ahead, treat them as PPDS.
What to put on the box
- Name of the food (for example “Victoria sponge with buttercream”)
- Full ingredients including fillings, frosting, decorations and board-contact coatings if edible
- Emphasis of egg, milk, wheat, nuts and any other of the 14 present
Transparent lids
A clear box does not remove the need for a written ingredients list. Customers and officers still need the list on the pack.
Questions
Can the label be on a ticket under the box?
Do I list flower decorations?
Official sources
Everything on this page traces back to these. Where they and we disagree, they are right — tell us and we'll fix it.
- 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