Guide
Who is responsible for what: the brand or the packer
Updated
The most expensive misunderstanding in contract packing is not about price. It is about which of the two companies is answerable for the product, and the answer is less intuitive than brands expect.
The label is the brand's
Food information rules attach to the food business operator under whose name the food is marketed. That is the brand on the front of the pack, not the company that filled it.
Some packers will help with artwork and with compliance checks, and help is not the same as responsibility. A wrong allergen declaration is the brand's problem however it got onto the label.
Registration applies to you too
gov.uk requires food businesses to register with their local authority. A brand that has products made for it is a food business.
This is the step brands most often assume the packer covers because the packer is the one with the factory. Registration is free, and not being registered is a poor start with an enforcement officer.
The recipe question, settled in writing
Three situations, three different outcomes. You supply a recipe. You supply one that needs scaling for production. Or the packer develops it.
In the third case, ownership of the resulting specification has to be agreed in writing before development starts. A recipe developed by a packer without an agreement is the standard reason a brand later finds it cannot move production without starting again.
What to put in the agreement
Who owns the recipe and any development work. Who owns tooling and artwork. What happens to your stock and materials if either side terminates. Notice periods on both sides. And what happens on a product recall, including who pays for it.
Recall is the clause nobody negotiates and the one that matters most when it is needed, because the cost falls somewhere by default if it is not allocated deliberately.