writing lot numbers on honey labels

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thedaidai

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Is it legit to buy labels in bulk and write the lot number on each label by hand?

I am thinking along the lines of printing Lot No. 13/ then writing 1,2,3 etc after the /

Thanks in advance for any responses
 
you can use any type of lot numbering you like as long as you can keep track of it. I use month and year eg 0713.
 
Inexpensive labelling gun with six number use by date, then no numbers on the label to render them out of date and no need for a separate lot number.
 
You DON'T need a lot number if you only use a full Best Before date I.E. Best Before: 30-Sept 2015, but if you use a Best Before END then only the month and year is required Plus a lot number.
 
You DON'T need a lot number if you only use a full Best Before date I.E. Best Before: 30-Sept 2015, but if you use a Best Before END then only the month and year is required Plus a lot number.

Correct unless a third party sells for you.
 
You DON'T need a lot number if you only use a full Best Before date I.E. Best Before: 30-Sept 2015, but if you use a Best Before END then only the month and year is required Plus a lot number.
Not quite. Many "guides" fail to reference the original legislation and official government publications, including the BBKA who should know better. So a lot of this almost-but-not-quite-accurate stuff gets repeated.

"The Food (Lot Marking) Regulations 1996" http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1996/1502/made covers the need to mark the lot number. There are exceptions but they don’t apply to a jar of honey, e.g. small containers or packing in front of the purchaser. There is another exception, in para 4(g), that the durability date is an acceptable substitute for the lot mark if it names the day and month.

The FLMR guidance notes expand on the use of a durability date as lot mark: :http://www.food.gov.uk/scotland/regsscotland/regsguidscot/foodlotmarkguid ("The Regulations apply in England, Scotland and Wales. A separate but similar law applies in Northern Ireland.")

"Best before end" dates are acceptable as lot marks as the indication of the day and month (as required by the Regulations) is implicit (eg "best before end October 1997" means best before 31 October 1997).

Using "End" does not determine whether you need a lot mark. The risk is that all production for that month has the same implied lot number so could be recalled. A “Best Before End 2015” would extend that to the whole year.

Correct unless a third party sells for you.
Another misinterpretation that is often repeated. Lot marking applies to jars of honey wherever it is sold and whoever is selling them.

It could be that some "guides" are misquoting exceptions to the need for "Country of origin" when you sell "honey harvested at home and sold at the home, farmgate or in market stalls". This is detailed in “Honey Regulations 2003 Guidance Notes (Version 2, July 2005 amended October 2007)” from the Food Standards Agency (FSA): http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/honeyguidance.pdf. This official guide has nothing to say about "country of origin" when selling cooperatively. e.g. from an association stall so that is probably not exempt.

Any "guide", association notes or lecture that doesn't have a verifiable date and publication source for "rules" it asserts could be wrong and is always liable to be out of date.

Is it legit to buy labels in bulk and write the lot number on each label by hand?
I am thinking along the lines of printing Lot No. 13/ then writing 1,2,3 etc after the /
There is nothing to say the lot number cannot be written in, labels are covered in "The Food Labelling Regulations 1996 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1996/1499/contents/made

The FLR states the basics; that labels must be "easy to understand, clearly legible and indelible and marked in a conspicuous place in such a way as to be easily visible." and "shall not in any way be hidden, obscured or interrupted by any other written or pictorial matter". Nothing that says labels cannot be hand written.
 
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We write a batch/lot number against each 'batch' we do, all our labels have a generic best before date (forget how long it is, but when we order our labels we ask for the longest allowed bbd), we then keep a book of which shops had which lot numbers and ultimately that can be traced back to which batch of honey came from, I don't go as far as each apiary site unless on a specific crop as around our way we can safely assume all spring crop will be 80%+ OSR

C B
 
... Many "guides" fail to reference the original legislation and official government publications, including the BBKA who should know better. So a lot of this almost-but-not-quite-accurate stuff gets repeated....

Alan, is there any chance of your putting together a proper guide, with references, for a closed-thread sticky on here?
Please?
Such gold dust could be discussed in the forum and the stone tablets clarified and updated only as strictly necessary.
Being able to refer to one source (with references) would be fantastic.
 
... proper guide, with references, for a closed-thread sticky on here?...
Is a "sticky" the right format? Various legislation is passed or amended, government department guides are updated or are uncovered as relevant, new Trading Standards interpretation examples appear and so on. The problem we start with is that the "rules" are spread over several pieces of legislation, various government guides and 30 or more years. It's not long before a closed thread is outdated or an open thread grows over time with amendments and discussion and we're no nearer a simple reference than we were before. Any attempt at unifying would need updating, editions that are replaced or possibly grow like a wiki.

Winter project possibilities though.
 
Saw some chunk honey from foreign parts, packed in 450 gram bulbous shaped jars ,back filled with a beautiful dark amber clear glucose syrup !
That's not Acacia honey I thought!
A search of the mumbo jumbo languages on the label stated the fact That it was glucose syrup! The main name was hosebal which suggests Turkey being involved along the line some where?
VM
 
Looked closely at the label on a jar of 'household name' honey in Sainsburys last week - that said in miniscule print "honey sourced from EU and non EU countries"

why not just put "our suppliers say this is supposed to be honey"
 
I've just extracted my first honey and looking at labels it is the most economical to by in big batches.

Now I wont need 1000 jars for a year or two so my question is, what do you all do about lot numbers on your labels?
 

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