How we work

Enquiry to delivery

1. 1. Enquiry

   You tell us the ingredient, the dose, the quantity and the pack. We say whether it is something a UK food supplement may lawfully be, and quote.

2. 2. Sourcing

   Ingredients and capsules are bought only from suppliers who issue a specification and a certificate of analysis for every lot. No certificate, no purchase. Where we source from wholesalers in China and Hong Kong, the same rule applies and the lots are checked on arrival.

3. 3. Label

   For private label, your artwork is checked against the mandatory particulars for a food supplement and against the GB nutrition and health claims register. Anything the register does not authorise is flagged before print. You sign the proof.

4. 4. Run

   One batch record per run: ingredient and capsule lots, fill weight checked on ten capsules at start, middle and end, count checked by weight and by hand, operator and date. A retained sample of every batch is kept for the shelf life plus six months.

5. 5. Pack and post

   Counted into pouches, cartons or bottles, sealed, labelled with batch and best before. Our default pack fits Royal Mail's large-letter format and posts on our account rates.

The food safety system

The premises are registered with Hertsmere Borough Council as a food business and inspected under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme. A written HACCP plan covers receiving, storage, weighing, filling, polishing, counting, packing and labelling, with six critical control points: certificate at receipt, the right ingredient and lot, fill weight, count, label, and release. Allergen ingredients are not handled on the premises. Cleaning is to a written schedule and signed. Anyone handling product holds Level 2 food hygiene.

Clients receive a copy of the batch record with every run and may ask to see the plan, the cleaning sheets and the supplier file. Insurers and inspectors ask for the same three documents, and they are the same three.

The register check

Great Britain keeps a register of the nutrition and health claims a food may make, with the wording for each. Anything not on it as authorised is unlawful on a label, and a claim to prevent, treat or cure is a medicinal claim, which no food may make. Our label check reads your copy, names the ingredients it recognises, quotes the register's authorised and refused wordings for each, and flags medicinal words and missing mandatory particulars. It is a check, not a warranty: the label is yours and its compliance is your responsibility, as the terms say.

What we will not make

The boundary is the law and nothing else. We will not fill anything on the UK medicine list (melatonin, DHEA, yohimbe and their kin), anything that needs a traditional herbal registration to be sold, or anything whose label carries a claim the register does not authorise. Everything else a UK food supplement may lawfully contain, we fill.

Lead times and minimums

Lead times are quoted from the machine's measured rate, not from hope, and stated on every quote. Minimum 100 units for private label and 5,000 capsules for filling. Registering with Hertsmere Borough Council as a food business. Quotes are taken now; the first runs follow registration.