Business guidance

• BEIS UK: Placing manufactured products on the market in Great Britain
• BEIS UK: UK Conformity Assessment Bodies

• Cabinet Office Brexit guidance
• HSE Biocidal products guidance
• EU Safety Gate for dangerous non-food products

Allergens guidance

• Food Standards Agency: Allergen guidance for food businesses

Traceability guidance

• GOV.UK: Traceability and labelling information
• Food Standards Agency: food traceability guide

Labelling guidance

• Business Companion Quick Guides: Food and Drink
• Food Standards Agency: Packaging and labelling

English:

Allergen awareness training video

Cymraeg (Welsh):

Fideo hyfforddiant ymwybyddiaeth o alergenau

বাংলা (Bengali):

অ্যালার্জেন সচেতনতা প্রশিক্ষণ ভিডিও

广东话 (Cantonese):

过敏原先意识培训视频

普通话 (Mandarin):

过敏原意识培训视频

Kurdî (Kurdish):

Vîdyoya perwerdehiya hişmendiya alerjenê

ਪੰਜਾਬੀ (Punjabi):

ਐਲਰਜੀਨ ਜਾਗਰੂਕਤਾ ਸਿਖਲਾਈ ਵੀਡੀਓ

Türk (Turkish):

Alerjen farkındalık eğitim videosu

اردو (Urdu):

الرجین آگاہی تربیتی ویڈیو

български (Bulgarian):

Обучително видео за познаване на алергени

Magyar (Hungarian):

Allergén tudatosság oktató videó

Polski (Polish):

Film szkoleniowy dotyczący świadomości alergenów

Română (Romanian):

Video de instruire pentru conștientizarea alergenilor

• Food Standards Agency: Online food safety training

• Food Standards Agency: Food Alerts

• Contact your district council
• Food Standards Agency: Food hygiene for your business

• Business Companion: Feed hygiene for farmers and growers
• GOV.UK: Starting an animal feed business
• Business Companion: Manufacturing your own pet foods
• Business Companion: The retail sale of pet food

Feed manufacturers - including pet food and pet treat manufacturers, transporters, retailers and farmers must register with us using our animal feed registration form.

• Business Companion: Law on the health and welfare of livestock
• GOV.UK: Keeping farmed animals, including identification, registration and movements

• Business Companion: keeping pet pigs
• Business Companion: Responsible animal pet ownership

If you're concerned about the health and welfare of any farm animals, e.g. cows, sheep, pigs, deer, goats and poultry, etc. you can report it to our animal health officers online.

Health and welfare issues that you could report include:

• animal feed hygiene
• illegally imported animals – imported animals that don’t meet the strict guidelines that prevent the introduction and spread of disease
• farm animals straying on the roads
• sick, injured or dead farm animals found at livestock markets, on farms, in fields, on footpaths or by the side of the road

• Business Companion: Weights and measures
• GOV.UK: National regulation on weights and measures
• Other information (weighbridge operator’s certificate, weight hire) 

• Business Companion: Underage sales
• No ID, No Sale: Preventing underage sales in the UK

18 years and over

Consumers must be 18 years and over to purchase:

• tobacco – also see Business Companion: Packaging, labelling, advertising and tracking
• fireworks and sparklers
• alcohol, knives, axes or blades
• lighter refills containing butane nicotine
• inhaling products (including e-cigarettes and e-liquid/vape juice)
• videos, DVDs and computer games with a 18+ classification

16 years and over

To purchase aerosol paint, consumers must be 16 years and over.

15 years and over

Videos, DVDs and computer games with a 15+ classification can only be purchased by consumers 15 years and over.

12 years and over

Consumers must be 12 years and over to purchase:

• christmas crackers
• videos, DVDs and computer games with a 12+ classification

Report an underage sales issue to Trading Standards.

Illegal (sometimes referred to as 'illicit') tobacco products are those which have been smuggled into the country. They include:

• tobacco products that have no duty (tax) paid
• counterfeit, or fake, products
• cigarettes called ‘cheap whites’ (produced solely for the smuggled market)

You can identify illegal tobacco products by its:

• price – if a packet of cigarettes or pouch of hand rolling tobacco is cheap, it’s likely to be illegal (prices between £4 to £6 for a pack of 20 cigarettes and £10 for a pouch of 50g tobacco)
• packaging – all cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco should be sold in mandatory dark green coloured packets
• origin – such as foreign brand names (e.g. Pect or NZ Gold), foreign health warnings on the packaging and / or no picture warnings
• location in a store – if they are kept away from the tobacco gantry and out of view e.g. under the counter

Implications of illegal tobacco

Health

All tobacco products are harmful to health. Many illegal tobacco products are unregulated. Young people can access cheap tobacco products because they’re sold at pocket money prices.  Cheap tobacco makes it too easy for children to smoke and become addicted. Adults who smoke are less likely to consider alternatives to smoking when tobacco products are cheap.

Safety

All legally manufactured cigarettes are produced with a paper that is self-extinguishable – which means the cigarette ‘goes out’ when the inhaling stops - to reduce the chance that they should set fire to sofas and beds. Illegal cigarettes don’t have this mandatory paper and therefore there is a greater chance of a fire.

Cost

Those that smuggle and sell tobacco products cost the government more than £2.5 billion a year in lost tax, resulting in less money available for public services e.g. hospitals and schools.

Crime

The selling of illegal tobacco brings criminal behaviour into communities and neighbourhoods.

You can identify counterfeit alcohol by its:

• price – a bottle of spirit which is 35cl or larger and 30% ABV (alcohol by volume) or higher will have UK duty stamp.  The stamp is usually part of the label or stuck onto the glass and shows that tax has been paid or is due to be paid on the contents of the bottle.  If the label isn’t there – it is illegal.
• packaging – poor quality labelling (possibly with spelling mistakes), fake versions of well-known brands, unusual brand names. Vodka is the most commonly counterfeited spirit. Branded wines are also commonly counterfeited.
• seal – if the cap isn’t sealed properly or is broken you shouldn’t drink the contents.  The product may not be illegal but it may have been tampered with.
• taste or smell – if the alcohol tastes or smells bad (particularly the smell of nail varnish) you must not drink it.

You can avoid fake alcohol by:

• making sure you buy from a reputable sources and always get a receipt or invoice
• being wary of deals that look too good to be true (it most probably is!)

• Report a counterfeit goods issue to Trading Standards
• Citizens Advice: Reporting fake or counterfeit goods

• GOV.UK: Topical issues for businesses and consumers

• GOV.UK: Search for a Trademark

• GOV.UK: Intellectual property an overview

• Business Companion: Good practice
• Business Companion: Consumer contracts
• Business Companion: Pricing and payment
• GOV.UK: Consumer protection guidance

With the recent COVID-19 events combined with increased stress, fewer opportunities to talk to colleagues and different working environments, businesses have become even more susceptible to scams and fraud.
Here we look at some examples.

Invoice or Mandate fraud

Business are advised to watch out for contacts that claim to be an organisation, a supplier or manager that they may know or have dealt with before. They may ask for changes to bank details normally used to make payments, but the money then goes into an account controlled by the fraudster.

Tech support scams

These are scams where criminals offer a ‘technical support service’ to unsuspecting users, offering to ‘fix’ non-existent technical issues or to ‘repair’ devices. They aim to gain access to devices and steal passwords and log-in details. They can do this by cold calling on the phone, sending e-mails with malicious attachments or gaining access to operating systems if they are not up to date. Victims may also be directed to click on links or visit fake websites which look legitimate.

Government grant or tax rebate scams

Businesses can be contacted in a variety of ways, but the latest ‘spin’ on this scam involves contact through text messages and social media messages and posts to encourage the victim to take up the offer of a fake government grant or a tax refund.

How to stay safe and protect yourself and your business from scams

Have you or your business been contacted out of the blue? Unsolicited phone calls and emails could be a sign of a scam but can be difficult to spot – here are some dos and don’ts to help you protect your personal and financial information:

• Don’t click on links or attachments in suspicious e-mails or text messages
• Don’t respond to messages asking for personal or financial details
• Don’t install any software, or grant remote access to your computer, as the result of a cold cal
• Do use stronger passwords and set up two-factor authentication
• Do be suspicious of cold callers asking for information or offering technical support
• Do challenge callers - genuine companies would never ask for financial information, passwords or log in details when contacting you

Report an unfair trading issue to Trading Standards.