Policies for Food Manufacturers

This page is for food and drink manufacturers and producers that need their documentation ready for an audit, a listing or an inspection. Policy Pros writes bespoke food safety, quality and operational policies for UK producers, from a single recall procedure to the full document set behind a SALSA or BRCGS audit.

Bespoke, audit-ready policies from £65 + VAT per document. Get a quote or call 020 3951 2875 for a free scoping conversation.

Policies Food Manufacturers Need

Legally Required

• HACCP-Based Food Safety Management System - Regulation 852/2004 requires documented procedures based on HACCP principles for every food business
• Traceability and Recall Procedure - the General Food Law requires one-step-back, one-step-forward traceability and withdrawal or recall of unsafe food
• Allergen Management and Labelling Procedures - the 14 regulated allergens, full ingredient labelling for prepacked food, and Natasha's Law for prepacked-for-direct-sale lines
• Local Authority Registration - at least 28 days before trading, with approval rather than registration for some products of animal origin
• Health and Safety Policy Statement - required in writing with 5 or more employees, backed by factory-floor risk assessments

Expected by Auditors and Buyers

• Supplier Approval and Raw Material Control Procedure - verified by every SALSA audit and central to BRCGS
• Good Manufacturing Practice and Hygiene Procedures - cleaning schedules, glass and foreign body controls, pest management
• Staff Hygiene Training Records - food handlers must be supervised, instructed or trained appropriate to their work
• Food Fraud and Product Integrity Controls - authenticity risk assessment, embedded in BRCGS Issue 9
• Crisis Management and Incident Procedure - who does what when a product has to come back
• Precautionary Allergen Labelling Risk Assessment - "may contain" now needs a documented risk assessment behind it

Getting Listed Means Getting Audited

Supermarket and wholesale buyers rarely take a producer on without certification. For small and micro producers that route is usually SALSA, aimed at businesses with under 50 employees, with an annual on-site audit verifying documented HACCP, supplier approval, traceability and good manufacturing practice. New standard issues apply to all SALSA audits from 1 September 2026, so documentation written against the old issue is worth checking now.

Larger contracts and major retailers typically ask for a GFSI-benchmarked certification such as the BRCGS Global Standard Food Safety, currently Issue 9. Its requirements run from senior management commitment and the HACCP-based food safety plan through the quality management system, site standards and food fraud controls, and every clause is evidenced by documents.

The deadline is usually a buyer's onboarding date, not yours. Producers chasing a listing tend to need their document set built quickly and correctly the first time.

The Legal Baseline Every Producer Carries

Certification sits on top of the law, not instead of it. Every food business must operate documented HACCP-based procedures, register with the local authority before trading, and be able to trace ingredients one step back and products one step forward.

When something goes wrong, the law requires withdrawal of unsafe food and a recall with consumer information where it has reached shelves. A written recall procedure, tested before it is needed, is what separates a controlled incident from an uncontrolled one. Our guides to food business registration and food hygiene policies cover the baseline in detail.

Allergen Controls After the 2025 Guidance

Allergen labelling is the highest-consequence corner of food documentation. Prepacked products need full ingredient lists with the 14 regulated allergens emphasised, and prepacked-for-direct-sale lines fall under Natasha's Law.

FSA best practice guidance from March 2025 tightened the approach to precautionary labelling: a "may contain" statement should sit on a documented cross-contamination risk assessment, not habit. Our guide to UK allergen labelling policy covers what the documentation should show.

Factory Floor Health and Safety

The HSE's food and drink manufacturing guidance is blunt about where injuries happen: manual handling accounts for over 30 per cent of reported injuries in the industry, conveyors are involved in more machinery accidents than any other machine class, and around 90 per cent of slips happen on wet floors.

Those risks map directly onto the documents an inspector expects: manual handling assessments, machinery safety and guarding procedures, COSHH assessments for cleaning chemicals and a slip management plan. If you also run engineering or fabrication operations, our manufacturing and engineering page covers that side.

What Policy Pros Delivers

Every document is written around your products, your processes and your site, not a generic factory. You get plain-English documents on professionally branded templates, consistent with each other and ready for an auditor to read.

• HACCP documentation, prerequisite programmes and good manufacturing practice procedures
• Traceability, recall, crisis management and supplier approval procedures
• Allergen management, labelling and precautionary labelling risk assessments
• Factory health and safety policies, risk assessments and training records structures

How to Get Started

Tell us what you make, the certification or buyer requirement you are working towards, and what documents already exist. We will come back with a fixed-price quote and a realistic timescale, usually the same working day.

Get a quote or call 020 3951 2875. If your business also runs cafes or catering, our hospitality page covers the front-of-house side.