# Food and drink > Imported sweets, snack boxes and treats. Sort out registration, labels and dates before you go on camera. Food sells well on live shows because buyers like watching an unboxing of crisps and chocolate they can't find in their local shop. You follow the same food law from your spare room as a corner shop does. Register with your council at least 28 days before you start, and check every ingredient list against UK law. Keep best before dates in plain view. Pack in a padded box and send it tracked. The usual route is sealed, branded products bought from a wholesaler or cash and carry. If you bake at home, you need allergen labels and should expect a council inspection. ## How to pack it - Seal drinks and anything that could leak in a plastic bag. - Box the order and fill every gap with paper so cans and packets can't move. - Send it tracked, and hold chocolate back from Friday posting in hot weather. Avoid: Crisps and biscuits in a mailing bag. They arrive as crumbs. - **[Small single-wall boxes, 25 pack](https://sellersetups.com/product/single-wall-boxes)** (£8 to £14): Use these for boxed toys and beauty sets that a padded bag would crush, when double-wall board costs more than you need. - **[Honeycomb paper wrap, 100 m roll](https://sellersetups.com/product/paper-void-fill)** (£18 to £28): Stretches into a cushioned mesh and goes in the paper recycling. Choose it if low-plastic packaging is part of your shop's pitch. - **[Bubble wrap, 500 mm x 100 m](https://sellersetups.com/product/bubble-wrap-roll)** (£10 to £15): A long roll costs several times less per metre than the small packs sold in shops. - **[100 x 150 mm thermal labels, 500 fanfold](https://sellersetups.com/product/thermal-labels-fanfold)** (£12 to £18): Fanfold stacks feed flat behind the printer and hold more labels than a roll. 100 x 150 mm matches the label size UK couriers and marketplaces print. ## Postage per order - Royal Mail Tracked 48 Small Parcel: £3.75. Clothing and small boxed items up to 2 kg, with tracking for less than untracked 2nd Class. - Royal Mail Tracked 48 Medium Parcel: £5.70 to £12.25. Trainers, homeware and electronics up to 20 kg, tracked and cheaper than untracked 2nd Class. ## Registration and the paperwork to do first Register your food business with your local council through the GOV.UK service. It's free, and the FSA asks for 28 days' notice before you begin trading. The council may visit or phone to check how you store stock. Reselling sealed, branded goods is the lighter route. Baking or repacking loose sweets into bags makes you responsible for allergen labelling and hygiene, and the inspection will look harder at your kitchen. Keep a simple record of where each batch came from, with the supplier invoice. If a product is recalled, you can see straight away which orders it went into. ## Popular lines and where to source them Imported crisps, fizzy drinks, Japanese snacks and limited edition chocolate bars are the staples of food shows on Whatnot and TikTok Shop. Sell mystery snack boxes at one price per box. Buy from UK importers and wholesalers who supply English labels and confirm the products meet UK rules. Grey imports from a supermarket abroad can contain banned additives. ## Labels, allergens and dates Sealed products from a UK importer carry the label already. Check it shows ingredients with allergens highlighted, a date, and a UK or EU business address. Put the best before date in the listing for anything with less than three months left. If a buyer opens a box of short dated chocolate without warning, expect a refund request. ## Showing snacks on a live show Hold each packet up to the camera with the front facing out, then turn it to show the date. Buyers on food shows ask about flavour and size more than condition, so keep one open sample of each line on the desk to describe. Keep chocolate off the desk under the ring light, where it softens during a long show. ## Packing food so it arrives whole Use a box for anything that crushes. Crisps and biscuits break in a mailing bag, and cans dent each other without padding between them. Bag drinks in a sealed plastic bag before they go in the box, so a leak stays in the bag. Fill the gaps with paper so nothing moves when you shake the box. ## Postage, heat and summer orders Send food on a tracked service so you can see where a parcel is if it's delayed. Avoid posting chocolate on a Friday in hot weather, when it can sit in a depot over the weekend. In summer, you can pause chocolate lines or add a note that melting in transit isn't covered. Put it in the listing before the sale. ## Common mistakes - The FSA asks you to register with the council at least 28 days before you start selling. - If you buy American sweets from an unchecked source, you may stock banned additives, so use an importer that sells for the UK. - Crisps posted in a mailing bag arrive as crumbs and come back as a refund request, so box anything that crushes. - If you leave the best before date out of the listing, buyers return short dated stock, so show the date on camera and in the text. - Cans packed against each other with no padding dent and leak, so wrap each one or divide them with paper. ## Setups - [Snack box seller in a registered spare room](https://sellersetups.com/setups/food-snack-box-spare-room): World sweets and crisp boxes sold on TikTok Shop and eBay, from a spare room set up around council registration and best before dates. ## Questions ### Do I need to register to sell food from home? Yes. If you run a food business in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, you register with your local council, and the Food Standards Agency asks you to do it at least 28 days before you start trading. Registration is free. Scotland has its own process through the local authority. ### Can I sell American sweets and drinks? Some US products contain colourings or additives that aren't permitted in the UK, and Trading Standards have seized imported sweets for that reason. Buy from a UK importer that relabels for this market, or check each ingredient list before you stock it. ### Can I sell food past its best before date? Food past its best before date can legally be sold if it's still safe to eat, because the date is about quality rather than safety. Tell buyers the date in the listing. You can't sell food past a use by date. Price short dated stock lower. ### Can I sell homemade cakes and biscuits? You can, once you've registered with the council. Expect a food hygiene inspection. A Level 2 food hygiene course isn't a legal requirement, but it shows the council you know the basics. List every ingredient with any of the 14 major allergens emphasised. ### Can I sell alcohol on Whatnot or eBay? Selling alcohol needs a licence from your council, and platforms add their own limits on top. Check your platform's restricted items page and the council's licensing team before listing any alcohol. ### Can I post food with Royal Mail? You can usually post sealed, non-perishable food. Perishable items and some liquids have restrictions, so check Royal Mail's prohibited and restricted items list before you choose a product line.