Selling supplements in the UK

Supplements made in Leicester for the UK market

For premium wellness brands selling in the UK, overseas newcomers included, we develop custom and private label supplements and build every formula, label and document set to UK food supplement regulations before the first batch. We make every format in Leicester: capsules, tablets, gummies, powders, sachets and stick packs, liquids, shots and sprays, and drinks. Because we make your product here, your stock starts inside the UK market, with no import of finished goods for sale in Great Britain. You receive the specification, certificates of analysis, stability data, a label and claims review and an ingredient status file, ready for UK retailers and marketplaces.

Overseas brands entering the UK need two things settled before launch: a product that meets UK food supplement regulations, and a UK business that answers for it on sale. The UK is one market with two sets of food rules. The Food Supplements (England) Regulations 2003 and their equivalents in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set the core rules, but in Northern Ireland food law relating to food supplements is covered by the Windsor Framework, so EU rules apply there (FSA guidance on food supplements). We design every formula to the GB and EU lists at once.

UK food supplement regulations and what we prepare, as of October 2026

Northern Ireland follows EU food law instead, as set out below.

UK food supplement regulations, rule by rule

A UK business on the label

As of October 2026, food sold in Great Britain must carry a UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man address for the food business or, where the business is based outside Great Britain, for its importer; Northern Ireland needs a Northern Ireland or EU address. It must be a physical postal address, not an email or phone number (FSA guidance on packaging and labelling). An overseas brand therefore names its own UK company, or the UK business that places the product on the market, and we build its details into the artwork.

Registration, not notification

Food businesses register with their local authority before trading, including those that only sell online or keep no food at their premises (GOV.UK, as of October 2026). Registration covers the business, not each product: UK food supplement rules set no product notification, unlike EU countries that require one. TikTok Shop UK may ask to see the registration.

Ingredients: where Great Britain differs

As of October 2026, vitamins and minerals must come in the forms on Great Britain's permitted list, and an ingredient not eaten to a significant degree in the UK or the EU before 15 May 1997 is a novel food, sold only once authorised for Great Britain. EU approvals made since 2021 do not apply in Great Britain, so formulas from abroad can need changes:

• Pasteurised Akkermansia muciniphila is authorised in the EU and Northern Ireland, but not in Great Britain.
• Allulose and urolithin A, both sold in US products, are not authorised in Great Britain or the EU.
• Magnesium L-threonate is now permitted in GB supplements for adults, excluding pregnant and lactating women, at up to 250 mg of magnesium a day, and only the applicant's material can be used until March 2031.
• Melatonin is a prescription-only medicine in the UK, and a supplement presented for medicinal uses falls under medicines control rather than food law (MHRA).

We screen every ingredient in-house before the formula is fixed and propose a permitted alternative wherever one is needed. Development is a paid R&D stage that can be included with an order of the right size.

Safe doses

Great Britain sets no statutory maximum amounts for vitamins and minerals in food supplements, as of October 2026, so every dose is a safety decision. We set each one against the safe upper levels and guidance levels of the UK's Expert Group on Vitamins and Minerals and EFSA's tolerable upper intake levels, then confirm with stability data from the final pack that the label amount holds through shelf life. Our supplement regulation watch tracks changes to these limits each quarter.

GB labels, claims and ads

What goes on a GB label

As of October 2026, a GB food supplement label carries:

• the name "food supplement", which the FSA says must not be "dietary supplement";
• the categories of nutrients or substances that characterise the product;
• the recommended daily portion, with a warning not to exceed it;
• a statement that food supplements should not be used as a substitute for a varied diet;
• a warning to store the product out of the reach of young children;
• the amount of each nutrient or substance per daily portion, as an average from the manufacturer's analysis, with vitamins and minerals also as a percentage of their nutrient reference values;
• the ingredients with allergens emphasised, the net quantity, a best before or use by date, and the UK business name and address.

Mandatory information is in English, with other languages allowed alongside it, at an x-height of at least 1.2 mm, or 0.9 mm on packs whose largest surface is under 80 cm², and nothing may imply that a balanced and varied diet cannot provide appropriate quantities of nutrients. A US label therefore needs rebuilding, not relabelling: the Supplement Facts panel gives way to amounts per daily portion, and structure/function claims give way to GB register wording. We verify the label on every batch as the critical control point in our HACCP study.

Claims and advertising

Health claims come from the GB nutrition and health claims register, in its wording and with its conditions of use: a product must be at least a source of magnesium, for example, to say "Magnesium contributes to a reduction of tiredness and fatigue". Botanical claims remain on hold. Those on the Department of Health and Social Care's on-hold list may still be used in Great Britain under its conditions, but we let authorised nutrient claims carry the message. The ASA enforces the CAP Code on ads, brand websites and social media aimed at UK consumers, applying the same health claim rules as the label. In its 2026 review of paid online health ads, it rated more than 86% of the ads it assessed in every group a medium or high compliance risk, so we check the claims you plan for listings and ads before launch. Our page on claims, evidence and regulation by market covers the detail.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland follows EU food law under the Windsor Framework, so EU limits and approvals apply there. As of October 2026, green tea extract supplements sold there must stay below 800 mg of EGCG a day, a limit Great Britain does not set, and EU-authorised novel foods can already be sold there. Food moved from Great Britain by businesses registered for the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme can meet UK public health standards instead, with "Not for EU" labels where required (NI Business Info). We plan each product for its route: EU rules, which also open the EU, or the scheme.

Four UK growth signals

Four local signals show where UK demand is growing:

• Online and marketplaces. Front Row estimates that vitamin and supplement sales on Amazon's stores in Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain grew 30% in 2025, with the UK store holding 32% of the total (March 2026). We supply our BSI HACCP and GMP certificate with your Amazon UK listing documents for capsules, gummies, functional pouches and liquids, the formats it covers. As of October 2026, Amazon UK requires approval to sell food supplements and the manufacturer's GFSI-recognised, HACCP or GMP certificate from an accredited third-party certification body, with a valid expiry date and a scope covering the product, and it does not list vitamin D above 100 µg a day, niacin (nicotinic acid) above 50 mg, nicotinamide above 500 mg or substances on the WADA Prohibited List. BRCGS certification, expected in early 2027, adds a GFSI-recognised certificate. TikTok Shop UK lists supplements only after invite-only onboarding. Our page on supplements for Amazon, TikTok Shop and online brands covers each store's documents.
• Nutrition alongside GLP-1 medicines. In Britain, 6.3% of households include a GLP-1 user, up from 2.4% in 2024 (Worldpanel by Numerator data, reported by NutraIngredients, August 2026). We make protein powders, fibre sachets and multivitamins built on protein, fibre, micronutrients and hydration, never a GLP-1 effect, which UK advertising rules regard as a medicinal claim; see our page on GLP-1 support supplement manufacturing.
• Fibre. UK adults aged 19 to 64 eat 16.4 g of fibre a day on average, against a recommended 30 g, and 4% of adults meet it (National Diet and Nutrition Survey 2019 to 2023, June 2025). Fibre suits powders, stick packs and gummies.
• Functional drinks. In Worldpanel by Numerator's January 2026 grocery data, 11% of UK households bought functional drinks, and spending rose 13% on a year earlier. We make drinks and shots in Leicester.

Food supplements are exempt from the UK's restrictions on advertising less healthy food and drink, in force since 5 January 2026 (DHSC). For your next product, build on one of these signals with a claim the GB register supports.

How a UK launch runs

Every UK launch runs through eight steps, with your sign-off at every gate.

1. UK market plan. Great Britain, Northern Ireland or both; your channels; and the UK business named on pack.
2. Screening. Every ingredient checked in-house for its status in Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the EU, and against the medicines borderline, with a permitted alternative proposed where one is needed.
3. Formula. Doses set against safe upper levels and the claims you want, with overages from measured loss rates, so every declared amount holds to the end of shelf life.
4. Label and claims. Your label built to GB rules, with the claims you plan for listings and ads checked against the CAP Code.
5. Manufacture. Every material passes supplier approval before first use and an annual review, and we make your product in Leicester under a HACCP study for each product type, reviewed annually, and our allergen management plan with yellow colour coding.
6. Pack. Bottles, pouches, sachets, stick packs or blisters chosen with you, led by mono-material bottles and recyclable formats: under the UK's extended producer responsibility scheme, fees for red-rated packaging rise from 1.2 times the amber rate in 2026/27 to twice it in 2028/29 (House of Commons Library, July 2026).
7. Release. Every batch is tested by accredited partner laboratories (ISO/IEC 17025) as part of every order, for the identity, active content, heavy metals and microbiology your specification sets, and released by quality control against it; nothing is dispatched without quality control sign-off. We keep three retained samples per batch for shelf life plus one year.
8. Documents and dispatch. The specification, certificates of analysis, stability data, a label and claims review and an ingredient status file for UK retailers and marketplaces, with stock shipped to your UK warehouse or split across your fulfilment partners. Where TikTok Shop UK asks for HACCP certification, we provide our BSI certificate.

British VitaTech is ISO 9001, HACCP and GMP certified by BSI, and FDA registered. BRCGS implementation under way, certification expected in early 2027. We hold £5m product liability insurance with worldwide cover, and our full mock recall runs forward and backward with mass balance in seconds; our page on testing and batch release explains each check. Your formula is yours: the formula, its specification and the data behind it belong to your brand, as our page on formula ownership explains.

Selling beyond the UK too? Our pages on supplement manufacturing for EU brands, custom supplement manufacturing for US brands and supplement manufacturing for every market cover each route. Start your project.

References: Food Supplements (England) Regulations 2003 (2003); Nutrition (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (2019); Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims, GB text (2006); Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on food information to consumers, GB text (2011); Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 on novel foods, GB text (2015); Food Standards Agency, food supplements guidance for businesses (2018); Food Standards Agency, update to the Board on the SPS programme (2026); Advertising Standards Authority, Pulse report on health claims in online ads (2026); Amazon Seller Central UK, food supplements and restricted products help pages (2026).