What the brand is responsible for in a private label product

The principle

Placing a product on the market under your own name brings the manufacturer's obligations with it. The company that physically made it is not the company whose name is on it, and the obligations follow the name.

The precise detail differs by product category, which is why the practical instruction is to read the guidance for your category rather than to rely on a general summary.

Labelling

Food information rules attach to the food business operator under whose name the food is marketed. That is the brand.

Manufacturers frequently help with artwork and with compliance checks, and help is not responsibility. An incorrect allergen declaration is the brand's problem however it got there, and the fact that the manufacturer supplied the copy does not change who is answerable.

Registration

A brand having food made for it is a food business and must register with its local authority. This is free and it is routinely assumed to be covered by the factory.

It is the single easiest thing on this page to get right, and the one most often missed.

The file

Whatever your category calls it, there is a body of evidence behind a product's compliance: specifications, safety assessments, test results, supplier declarations.

Whoever compiles it, the brand needs access to it. Without access you cannot answer a regulator, satisfy a retailer's technical team, or move manufacturer without starting the work again. Put access, and what happens to it on termination, in the contract before the first run.

The practical sequence

Read the guidance for your category. Establish what documentation exists and who holds it. Get access rights in the contract. Register where registration applies. Then talk about price.

Doing it in that order costs nothing extra. Doing it afterwards is where the expensive surprises live.