How to check a health claim on UK food in two minutes

Open the Great Britain Nutrition and Health Claims register on GOV.UK, download the spreadsheet, and search it for the nutrient or ingredient the pack is talking about. If the wording isn’t in a row marked authorised for use in Great Britain, it isn’t an approved claim. Nutrition claims such as high fibre sit on a second sheet, with their thresholds.

That’s the whole method. The rest of this page is the detail that makes it quick, and what to do with what you find.

Where is the official list of approved health claims?

On GOV.UK, under the title Great Britain nutrition and health claims (NHC) register. It is published by the Department of Health and Social Care, applies in England, Scotland and Wales, and comes as a spreadsheet in Excel or ODS format. The version current as I write is dated 19 May 2026. A separate annex lists the few claims authorised on the basis of proprietary data.

Only authorised claims on that register may be used in Great Britain. Northern Ireland is different: EU nutrition law still applies directly there, so food sold in Northern Ireland follows the EU register instead.

How do you search the register?

Download the spreadsheet and open the sheet called Health_claims. Each row has a claim type, the nutrient or food, the claim wording, the conditions of use (or the reason it was turned down), the health relationship, the scientific opinion it rests on, the regulation, the status and an entry number.

1. Search for the ingredient, not the sentence. Press Ctrl and F (Cmd and F on a Mac) and type calcium, fibre or cultures. Packs paraphrase, so a search for the full slogan will usually find nothing.
2. Read the status column. Authorised for use in Great Britain means approved. Non authorised means it was turned down, and the reason is in the same row. An asterisk after authorised marks a claim based on proprietary data, which is also listed in the annex.
3. Read the conditions. Most authorised claims come with one, and the pack has to meet it. Many say the food must be at least a source of the nutrient.
4. Turn the pack over and check. A source of a vitamin or mineral means at least 15 per cent of its nutrient reference value per 100g. For calcium, whose reference value is 800mg, that is 120mg per 100g.

Expect most of what you search to come back not authorised. In the 19 May 2026 version, 267 of the 2,349 health claim entries are authorised.

How do you check a nutrition claim like high fibre?

On the second sheet, Nutrition_claims. It lists the permitted nutrition claims with their conditions: low sugars, high fibre, source of protein and the rest. The same list is the Annex to Regulation 1924/2006, which you can read on legislation.gov.uk, where the text of UK law is published. Each condition also covers any claim likely to have the same meaning, so full of fibre has to meet the high fibre number.

If a word isn’t on that sheet, it is not a permitted nutrition claim and has no threshold. Natural, wholegrain and plant based are three that people expect to find and won’t. Nine front of pack phrases that mean less than you think goes through those one at a time.

What if the claim is vague, like good for your gut?

Then search for what should be standing beside it. Under Article 10 of the claims regulation, a reference to a general benefit for overall health or well being is allowed only if a specific authorised health claim accompanies it. Gut friendly is the classic case; its only appearance in the register is in an entry recorded as not authorised, as I explain in what gut friendly means on a UK food label.

One line needs no spreadsheet. Food information in the UK must not attribute to any food the property of preventing, treating or curing a human disease. A pack that says it does is wrong before you open anything.

What does the ASA cover, and where are its rulings?

The Advertising Standards Authority covers adverts, including websites and social media, but it says plainly that it does not cover claims or images on products or packaging. For an advert, its rulings page lets you search past decisions and filter by topic, including food, drink and supplements, and by outcome. Rulings come out every Wednesday. If you think an advert breaks the rules, you can complain online with a screenshot and where you saw it.

Probiotic, live cultures, biotic shows how those rulings have treated probiotic and prebiotic wording.

Who do you tell about a misleading label?

In England and Wales, Trading Standards handles food labels that are misleading or missing information, including health claims. In England you report to Trading Standards through the Citizens Advice consumer service, which passes it on; they’ll only contact you if they need more. In Scotland, and for claims and ingredients in Northern Ireland, it’s your local food safety team.

If you’d like to try your eye before you try the spreadsheet, the label test is six true or false claims and takes about two minutes.