How to share loose bakery items?

When you’re collecting food, you must ensure allergen information is available. This will usually be labelled on the product itself if it's prepacked, or provided separately at the time of collection by businesses that change their menus regularly (such as caterers). You must not collect food when no allergen information is available. Check out our specific guidance on Allergens.

However, loose bakery items will often be unlabelled and you may collect them provided you follow the below instructions:

Don't:

❌ Never try to identify loose/unlabelled items if there is no name for it on the container or bag. Indeed, if you misidentify an item or if it was in contact with other products, someone could get the wrong allergen information and have an allergic reaction.

Do:

✅ List these items specifically as "Loose bakery items".

✅ Ask the store to bag the items for you. If they will not do this, please use either tongs, sanitised hands and/or gloves.

✅ Make sure that the requester is aware that you cannot identify a specific product. They should identify the items themselves using the information available on the allergen page.