Free-From Claims: What You Can and Cannot Say on Food Labels

Making a "free-from" claim sounds simple — your product doesn't contain nuts, so you say it's nut-free. But food labelling law in both the UK and US treats these statements with a level of scrutiny that catches many small producers off guard. Regulators don't just assess whether an ingredient appears on your recipe card; they assess whether your manufacturing environment, supply chain, and traceability systems can actually support the claim you're making. Getting this wrong isn't just a compliance headache — it can result in product recalls, enforcement notices, and serious harm to customers with life-threatening allergies.

The stakes are especially high for food businesses selling through Shopify. Online retail removes the opportunity for a customer to ask questions at a counter or read a physical label up close. When someone with a severe peanut allergy buys your product based on a product description that says "peanut-free," that text carries real legal and moral weight. And if the claim is inaccurate — even unintentionally — the consequences can be severe.

In this guide, you'll learn exactly what free-from claims mean under UK and US food law, which types of claims are regulated and which are voluntary, what evidence you need to support a claim, and where most food businesses go wrong. By the end, you'll have a clear framework for using these claims responsibly and confidently.

What "Free-From" Actually Means in Legal Terms

The phrase "free-from" has no single universal legal definition in either the UK or US, which is precisely where the confusion begins. In the UK, Food Information to Consumers Regulation (FIC) and Regulation (EC) No 1169/2011 (retained post-Brexit) govern allergen labelling, but they don't define a specific threshold at which a product is legally "free" from an allergen. Instead, any claim you make must be truthful, non-misleading, and substantiated by evidence — the burden of proof falls entirely on you as the producer.

In the US, the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) mandates declaration of the nine major allergens — milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame — but similarly does not define a regulatory threshold for "free-from" labelling. The FDA acknowledges that a threshold of 20 parts per million (ppm) applies specifically to gluten-free claims under 21 CFR Part 101.91, but no equivalent numerical standard exists for peanut-free, dairy-free, or other allergen-free claims. This gap means businesses often assume they're compliant when their claims haven't been formally validated.

What this means practically is that writing "peanut-free" on your packaging is a voluntary marketing claim that must be backed by documented evidence. If a customer suffers an allergic reaction and your product was labelled peanut-free, you will be expected to produce testing records, supplier declarations, and processing controls to demonstrate due diligence. Good intentions are not a defence.

The Difference Between "Free-From" and "May Contain" Statements

Many food businesses use "may contain" advisory statements as a safety net alongside their free-from claims, assuming these two labels can coexist without contradiction. In reality, placing both on the same product is increasingly viewed by regulators and allergen specialists as problematic and potentially misleading to consumers. If your product is genuinely free from an allergen, a "may contain" advisory for the same allergen undermines that claim entirely — and if cross-contamination is possible, then a free-from claim may be unjustified in the first place.

Precautionary allergen labelling (PAL) — the technical term for "may contain" statements — is voluntary in the UK and not formally regulated, though the FSA's allergen guidance strongly advises that it should only be used where a genuine, assessed risk of cross-contamination exists. The problem is that many businesses apply it reflexively to every product as blanket legal protection, which dilutes its meaning for consumers who rely on it most. Surveys conducted by Allergy UK have found that a significant proportion of allergic consumers regularly ignore "may contain" warnings because they appear on too many products that likely carry no real risk.

The practical takeaway here is that your approach to PAL and free-from claims must be coordinated and consistent. If you've invested in segregated production lines, dedicated equipment, and validated cleaning procedures for a specific allergen, you may be in a strong position to drop a "may contain" advisory and support a clean free-from claim — but only after conducting a formal risk assessment and keeping documentation.

Gluten-Free: The Most Regulated Free-From Claim

Gluten-free is the standout exception to the lack of numerical thresholds in allergen-free labelling. In the UK, Regulation (EU) No 828/2014 (retained in domestic law) sets a clear legal limit: a product labelled gluten-free must contain no more than 20 mg/kg (20 ppm) of gluten. Products labelled "very low gluten" must contain no more than 100 ppm and must use specially processed cereals. These thresholds are enforceable, and businesses selling products with these claims can be — and are — tested by Trading Standards in the UK and the FDA in the US.

This means that if you're selling a gluten-free biscuit range on Shopify, you cannot simply list gluten-containing ingredients as absent from your recipe and call it a day. You need verified testing data — either from an accredited third-party laboratory or from a certified testing protocol applied consistently in your production environment. Many small producers use batch testing at a cost of approximately £50–£150 per test depending on the lab, which is a manageable investment relative to the risk of a non-compliant claim reaching your customers.

One important nuance: naturally gluten-free products — such as plain rice or fresh fruit — don't automatically qualify for a gluten-free label under UK law if they've been processed in a facility that handles gluten. The label must reflect the finished product as it reaches the customer, not the inherent properties of the raw ingredients. Always test; never assume.

Dairy-Free, Vegan, and Plant-Based: How These Claims Interact

Dairy-free and vegan are not interchangeable terms in law or in consumer expectation, yet many businesses treat them as synonyms on product pages and packaging. Dairy-free is an allergen-related claim suggesting the product contains no milk or milk derivatives — substances that are major allergens under both UK and US law. Vegan, by contrast, is an ethical claim indicating no animal-derived ingredients, which encompasses dairy but also eggs, honey, gelatine, and other substances that are not necessarily allergens in the legal sense.

A product labelled vegan can still trigger a dairy allergy if cross-contamination occurs during manufacturing, and a product labelled dairy-free may still contain casein or whey if a supplier reformulated an ingredient without notifying you. This highlights the importance of robust supplier management — including regular ingredient specification reviews, supplier allergen questionnaires, and contractual requirements for change notification. Businesses that rely on a single specification sheet from five years ago are operating on outdated information that may no longer reflect what's actually in their product.

On Shopify product pages specifically, both the product title and the description contribute to the overall impression your product creates for consumers. If your title says "Dairy-Free Chocolate Truffles" and your ingredients list shows "dark chocolate (may contain milk)," you have an inconsistency that could attract regulatory attention and, more importantly, put customers at risk. Auditing your product listings for this kind of misalignment is a practical first step every food seller should take.

Documenting Your Claims: What Evidence You Actually Need

Supporting a free-from claim isn't just about having clean recipes — it requires a layered documentation approach that covers ingredients, production, and post-market monitoring. At minimum, you should hold current allergen declarations from all direct ingredient suppliers, ideally updated annually or whenever a reformulation occurs. These declarations should specify both intentional inclusion and cross-contamination risk for all fourteen UK-regulated allergens (or nine under FALCPA in the US), and they should be signed and dated by someone with authority at the supplier's end.

Beyond ingredient-level documentation, you need records that demonstrate your production environment supports the claim. This includes cleaning validation records showing your procedures are effective at removing allergen residues between runs, production scheduling records showing allergen-containing products are not run immediately before free-from lines, and staff training records showing that everyone handling food understands the protocols. The FSA's Safer Food Better Business pack provides a practical framework for smaller producers who don't have dedicated food safety teams but still need to operate to a documented standard.

Finally, consider whether periodic product testing — even for products that are not legally required to be tested — adds value to your claims. For a business selling to retail buyers, being able to show a buyer a recent certificate of analysis demonstrating your peanut-free biscuit contains fewer than 2.5 ppm of peanut protein is a significant commercial differentiator, not just a compliance exercise. It builds trust and reduces the likelihood of rejection during a retail audit.

Common Mistakes Shopify Food Sellers Make With Free-From Labels

The most common mistake is copying free-from claims from a manufacturer's website or wholesale listing without verifying whether those claims apply to the specific batch, SKU, or pack size you're selling. Distributors frequently stock multiple variants of a product, some of which carry free-from certifications and some of which do not. Applying a blanket "nut-free" tag to an entire product range because one SKU was tested creates meaningful legal and safety exposure for the others.

A second frequent error involves product reformulations and app data that doesn't keep pace with them. If you update your recipe — switching to a new chocolate supplier, for example — but don't update your Shopify product description, metafields, or the allergen management tool you're using, you may be continuing to display a free-from claim for a product that can no longer support it. Tools like Allergen Matrix help you centralise allergen data so that when an ingredient changes, your product-level claims update systematically rather than relying on manual edits across dozens of individual listings.

Third, many businesses underestimate how allergen claims on digital storefronts are evaluated by regulators. The UK's Online and Distance Selling Regulations under FIC require that mandatory food information — including allergen details — must be provided before purchase and confirmed at the point of delivery. A product page that claims "gluten-free" but fails to provide full allergen information in the product description or a linked specification may be non-compliant even if the physical packaging is correct.

Conclusion

Free-from claims are one of the highest-stakes areas of food labelling, precisely because the customers who rely on them most have the least margin for error. The key takeaways are straightforward: understand that most free-from claims beyond gluten-free are voluntary but still legally enforceable as marketing claims; build your documentation from the ingredient level up through production and testing; and ensure your Shopify listings reflect your current formulations, not your original ones. Regularly reviewing both your supplier declarations and your product page content — treating them as live documents rather than one-time setup tasks — is the habit that separates compliant businesses from those caught out during audits or incidents. Start with a systematic audit of your current free-from claims, identify where your evidence is thin, and build from there.

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