Food Shop Handover Checklist for Shopify: Label Details to Check

Short answer: before you hand a Shopify food shop that sells into the EU over to your client, check every food product for its label details: the nutrition table, the ingredients with allergens in bold, and the food business operator. Go through the client’s label spreadsheet row by row before you import it, then check the whole catalogue for products that still have gaps. Finally, open the live product pages the way a shopper would.

This checklist is for agencies and freelancers who build food shops for clients. It helps you find missing label details before the client, a shopper or a food authority does.

Written by the StoreFleet team. The first draft was AI-assisted and a person reviewed it. It describes a working process and how the Etiketto app fits into it. It is not a record of a specific client project.

A note on the law. The rules on food information for consumers are in Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011. This checklist is a working aid, not legal advice, and following it does not make a shop compliant. Which details a product needs, including any exemptions and the rules for distance selling, is for your client to confirm against the current text of the regulation and with their food-law adviser.

What does “complete” mean for each product?

Agree on it in writing before you touch the shop. The checklist below assumes each food product page shows at least:

• A nutrition table
• An ingredients list with the allergens in bold
• The name and address of the food business operator

Then add whatever else your client’s adviser says their products need, such as net quantity, storage conditions or origin. For the wider list, see our checklist of what a food product page must show in the EU. With the definition written down, “is the shop ready?” becomes a question you can answer product by product.

Where should the label data come from?

From one structured sheet that the client has checked. A common handover problem is label data spread over three places: a spreadsheet from the client, text pasted into product descriptions and photos of the pack. Photos are hard for shoppers to read on a phone, and hard for you to audit. Pasted text makes the allergen formatting inconsistent.

1. Ask the client for one sheet with one row per product, or one row per variant if flavours or sizes have different recipes.
2. Give it one column per detail: nutrition values, ingredients, allergens and operator.
3. Have the client confirm the values. They know the recipes and the supplier specifications; you don’t.

How do you check a label CSV before importing it?

Read it row by row before you import it. Fixing the file once is quicker than fixing products one at a time afterwards.

1. Match each row to the right product. Look for typos in product identifiers, duplicate rows and products with no row at all.
2. Read the allergens against the ingredients. Each allergen in the ingredient text should be the one the client meant.
3. Look for empty cells. A blank operator or a missing nutrition value in the file will be a gap on the page.
4. Compare the “of which” values with their totals. Sugars can’t be higher than carbohydrate, and saturates can’t be higher than fat. Swapped rows and mixed units are the usual causes. See why a nutrition label won’t save because of “of which” values.
5. Fix the file, then import. If you find a problem, correct the CSV rather than patching individual products later, so the file stays the single source.

How do you find products that are still missing label details?

Check the whole catalogue after the import. Don’t assume every product was covered. With Etiketto, the catalogue check shows which products still have gaps in their label details, such as a missing nutrition table, ingredients or operator, so you see what is left without opening every product.

For each product it lists:

1. Fill in the missing detail in the app’s editor, or correct the CSV and import it again.
2. Run the check again and confirm the product no longer has gaps.
3. Note the date and who checked it in your handover document.

Decide early what to do with products that don’t need a food label, such as a gift card or a non-food accessory, so they don’t confuse the result.

What should you check on the live product pages?

A clean check tells you the data is there. It doesn’t tell you the page looks right on the client’s theme. Open a sample of product pages on a computer and on a phone:

• Is the nutrition table readable without zooming?
• Are the allergens in bold in the ingredients list? To cross-check a list against the 14 EU allergens, use the free EU allergen checker.
• Does the operator appear with the label?
• If the product has variants with different recipes, does the label change when you pick another flavour or size?
• If the shop sells in several languages, does the label show in each published language? See showing allergens in your store’s languages.

Open at least one product of each type, for example a snack, a drink and a bundle.

What should the client know after handover?

Handover isn’t only launch day. Tell the client:

• Where the labels are edited.
• That every new food product needs its label details before it goes on sale.
• How to run the catalogue check again after adding products.
• That the nutrition table and allergens must be updated whenever a recipe or supplier changes.

Put the checklist itself in your handover document, so the client can use it for the next product launch.

The handover checklist, in short

Step	What to check	Done when
1	Required details per product	Agreed in writing with the client and their adviser
2	Label data	One sheet, confirmed by the client
3	CSV, row by row	No wrong matches, empty cells or “of which” values above their totals
4	Catalogue check	No food product still has gaps in its label details
5	Live pages	Checked on a computer and a phone, per variant and per language
6	Client handover	Client knows how to edit labels and rerun the check

Where Etiketto fits

Etiketto: EU Nutrition Labels is a free Shopify app for food shops selling into the EU. It shows the food information Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 requires on product pages: a nutrition table, ingredients with allergens in bold, and the operator. For a client handover, you import the label details from a CSV, use the catalogue check to see which products still have gaps, and finish the rest in the app’s editor, with one label per product or one per variant. Then add the Food information block to the product template of an Online Store 2.0 theme in the theme editor, with no Liquid edits.

The values come from you and your client, and the app shows them as entered. It does not calculate nutrition values and does not make a page compliant by itself. More on the Etiketto app page.

FAQ

Who is responsible for the label details, the agency or the client? The food business operator is responsible for the food information. As the builder, agree in writing that the client supplies and confirms the values, and that you set them up as supplied. Confirm the details of that split with the client’s adviser.

Can I import food labels for a whole catalogue at once? With Etiketto you can import the label details from a CSV file, so a large catalogue doesn’t have to be typed in one product at a time. Check the file row by row before you import it.

How do I know which products are still missing label details? Run Etiketto’s catalogue check. It shows which products still have gaps in their label details, so you know what is left before handover.

Does following this checklist make the shop compliant? No. It helps you find gaps in the information, but which details each product needs is a legal question for your client and their food-law adviser, based on Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011.

Try Etiketto: EU Nutrition Labels

Setting up a food shop for a client? Import the labels, run the catalogue check and hand the shop over with no gaps you don’t know about. Install Etiketto: EU Nutrition Labels from the Shopify App Store.