Selling Homemade Preserves Legally in the UK – What You Actually Need to Know

Plenty of people in the UK quietly sell homemade jams, chutneys and pickles at markets and from home. Some do it fully compliant. Others are trading on guesswork and Facebook rumours. If you’re serious about selling homemade preserves legally – and sleeping at night – you need to understand a few basics properly.

1. Do you actually need to register as a food business?

If you’re making food at home on a regular basis with the intention of selling it – even on a small scale – you are almost certainly operating a food business in the eyes of your local authority.

That means you should:

• Register with your local council as a food business at least 28 days before you start trading.
• Expect an environmental health officer to visit your kitchen and look at how you work.
• Be able to explain your processes, cleaning routines and how you keep food safe.

Registration itself is free. What matters is that you take it seriously and can show you understand your responsibilities.

2. Why preserves are often treated as “lower risk” – but not risk-free

Jams, jellies, chutneys and many pickles are usually classed as ambient, longer-life products. High sugar and/or high acidity help keep harmful bacteria under control.

That doesn’t mean “anything goes”. You still need to:

• Use reliable recipes and processes for sugar levels, vinegar strength and heat treatment.
• Make sure jars and lids are clean and in good condition.
• Cool and store finished jars in a way that matches the guidance you put on the label.

In Preserving for Profit I explain which products are truly low-risk, which ones councils worry about more, and how that affects what you can reasonably sell from a home kitchen.

3. UK labelling rules you can’t ignore

Even if you only sell locally, your jars are still expected to carry the key information a customer needs to use them safely and sensibly. That typically includes:

• The name of the food (clear and honest – “strawberry jam”, “spiced apple chutney”, “pickled onions in vinegar”).
• A full ingredients list in descending order by weight.
• Allergens clearly emphasised within that list (for example, in bold type).
• Either a best before or use by date, depending on the product.
• Any storage instructions needed to keep the product safe and good quality.
• The name and address of the food business responsible.
• The net quantity (for example, “225 g”).

There are extra rules in some situations – for example, certain specific naming rules for jams, or where origin and nutritional information are required. The book walks through realistic label layouts for real home businesses, including what the law actually expects and what is just “nice to have”.

4. Hygiene, cleaning and your home kitchen

Councils don’t expect a home kitchen to look like a factory, but they do expect you to run it like a small business, not a casual hobby.

You should be able to show that you:

• Keep the kitchen and equipment clean and in good condition.
• Control cross-contamination – for example, how you handle raw meat on days you’re also making preserves.
• Protect ingredients and finished jars from pests and contamination.
• Have simple, written procedures or checklists for how you work.

Using something like the UK “Safer Food, Better Business” packs can help show you understand what’s needed. In Preserving for Profit I show how to adapt that kind of thinking specifically to jam, chutney and pickle production.

5. Selling at markets, events and online

Once your product and processes are under control, you still need to think about how you actually sell:

• At markets and events, your jars still need proper labels, and you should be able to answer basic questions about ingredients and allergens.
• If you sell online or by distance (for example, through a website or social media), key information such as allergens and ingredients should be available before a customer commits to buying.
• Packaging for posting needs to protect jars properly – leaking jars covered in glass are a food safety issue as well as a customer service problem.

In the book I include checklists for market days and a simple way to keep track of batches, best before dates and where jars have gone.

6. Common myths about selling homemade food in the UK

In Facebook groups you’ll often see the same risky myths repeated:

• “I only sell a few jars so I don’t need to register.” – If you’re trading regularly, the law doesn’t care whether it’s “just a few jars”.
• “Farmers’ markets are exempt from food law.” – They aren’t. Markets may have their own extra rules, but they don’t replace your legal duties.
• “If I write ‘not for resale’ I’m covered.” – That wording doesn’t cancel your food safety responsibilities.

Part of taking your business seriously is choosing to learn from proper sources and structured guidance, not fragments of advice from social media. That’s exactly why I wrote Preserving for Profit.

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