Contract packing and co-packing

Contract packing and co-packing into bottles, pouches and blisters

We pack capsules, tablets, gummies, powders and liquids into bottles and jars, stand-up pouches, sachets, stick packs and blister packs at our Leicester facility, then label, carton and kit them. Contract packing, or contract packaging, turns a finished product into stock that retailers, marketplaces and fulfilment partners accept. British VitaTech is the bespoke British manufacturer for premium wellness brands, and our contract packing and co-packing service runs inside the same quality system that makes the product. We make your custom or private label supplements and pack them, or we pack bulk you supply once it passes the checks we apply to any raw material. Either way, every pack leaves with a lot code and quality control sign-off.

Contract bottling and jarring

We fill HDPE, PET, glass and aluminium bottles and jars. Induction seals give tamper evidence: an electromagnetic field heats the foil in the cap liner until its sealing layer fuses to the rim. For hygroscopic fills, we size the desiccant to the product's moisture budget, set during supplement packaging development, with scoops, leaflets and shrink bands as the pack needs.

Pouches, sachets and stick packs

A heat seal forms when the film's sealant layers melt and fuse under temperature, pressure and dwell time, so we set those conditions for each film and check seals by peel, burst and vacuum leak tests. Mono-material films seal in a narrower window than foil laminates, which matters as packs move to recyclable structures, as our page on sachet and stick pack manufacturing explains.

Blister packs

Blisters protect each capsule or tablet until it is taken. Aluminium-aluminium blisters suit highly moisture-sensitive products. Mixed-material blisters are hard to recycle, so we favour recyclable options for new ranges, as our page on capsule and tablet manufacturing explains.

Labelling

We check each label against its approved artwork version, apply it and print the lot code and best before date on the line. Our supplement label design and artwork service prepares each market's label before print.

Kitting and gift sets

We assemble multi-product kits, sample sets and gift packs, with inserts that hold each product in place. Each product keeps its own compliant label: food rules for supplements, cosmetics rules for skincare. From 12 February 2028, EU packaging law limits empty space in sales packs to what protection and function need, so we size gift boxes to their contents from the first design.

Line clearance, seal checks and label reconciliation, run by run

1. Brief and specification. We agree the pack, components, markets, coding format and delivery plan, and record them in a packing specification held in your product file. Your formula is yours. So is its packing specification.
2. Approved components. Every bottle, closure, film, label and carton comes from a supplier approved before first use and reviewed every year, with food contact declarations for primary packaging.
3. Bulk made or received. Bulk we make moves straight from production to packing. Bulk you supply is treated as a raw material: we approve its maker as a supplier, check its certificate of analysis against the specification and have it tested on receipt by accredited partner laboratories.
4. Line clearance. Each line is cleared of the previous product, labels and packaging before a run, and our allergen management plan, with yellow colour coding, runs non-allergen products first.
5. Fill, seal and check. Count or fill weight is checked at the start of each run and at set intervals, seals and closures are checked for integrity, and lot codes and best before dates are checked for legibility throughout the run.
6. Label and reconcile. Labels are verified on every batch as the critical control point in our HACCP study, CCP-01, for ingredient accuracy, allergen declarations and batch coding. Labels issued, used and destroyed are reconciled, and obsolete labels are destroyed.
7. Release and ship. Quality control releases every batch against its specification, and nothing is dispatched without its sign-off. We keep three retained samples per batch for shelf life plus one year, then ship finished retail units or split shipments across your fulfilment partners through our fulfilment services.

One UK pouch brand, a client since 2023, grew with us from a small brand to over 30,000 units a month, and we split its shipments across its fulfilment partners. In the brand's words: "They've felt less like a supplier and more like a partner in the business."

Lot codes, traceability and the data for your EPR returns

The rules that govern making a supplement also govern packing it. British VitaTech is ISO 9001, HACCP and GMP certified by BSI, and FDA registered. BRCGS implementation under way, certification expected in early 2027. Every batch is tested by accredited partner laboratories (ISO/IEC 17025) as part of every order, as our pages on quality and accreditations and testing and batch release explain.

Lot codes and records

As of October 2026, three rules shape every pack we fill:

• A lot code on every pack. UK and EU law requires food sold in lots to carry a lot mark, usually starting with "L", so it goes on every pack and outer case.
• One step back, one step forward. Every food business must know who supplied it and whom it supplied, and packaging materials must be traceable too. Our records cover both.
• US brands. FDA's supplement manufacturing rules cover packing and labelling as well as making, so for US products we control and reconcile labels, check packaging and labels for each batch before packing, and keep each packed lot's history through distribution.

Our supplement regulation watch tracks the rules behind every pack.

From supplier lot to dispatch, traced in seconds

Our traceability chain links each supplier lot and its certificate of analysis to the recipe, the production and packing job, quality control and dispatch, and it opens in seconds from any batch, order, goods-in record, product, supplier or customer. A full mock recall runs forward and backward with mass balance, reconciling every material and component received against product made, stock and waste. Non-conformances close only with QA and Operations sign-off, and we hold £5m product liability insurance with worldwide cover.

Your packing specification, records and EPR data

• The packing specification for each product, held in your product file.
• Quality control release for every batch, with a certificate of analysis from our accredited partner laboratories.
• The batch record's packing checks and label reconciliation, on request.
• Dispatch records for each shipment and each fulfilment partner.
• Component materials and weights for your packaging EPR returns.

Packaging EPR

As of October 2026, GOV.UK guidance on packaging data asks a UK brand owner to report packaging supplied under its brand even when another company packs it. Where the brand owner is not established in the UK, or is a UK organisation that is not a large organisation, the packer or filler may also have to report it, and we supply the packaging data for your EPR returns.

For your next product, pack it where it is made, under one batch record. To brief us, Start your project.

References: Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, general food law (2002); Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 on food contact materials (2004); Food (Lot Marking) Regulations 1996 (1996); Directive 2011/91/EU on lot marking (2011); 21 CFR Part 111, dietary supplement manufacturing practice (2026); Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste (2025); GOV.UK, How to collect your packaging data for extended producer responsibility (2026); GS1, 2D barcodes at retail point-of-sale implementation guideline (2025).