Journey
Set up as an alcohol or drinks producer
Learning path for new drinks producers — brewers, distillers, winemakers and cidermakers, and makers of soft drinks and bottled water. Work out which rules apply, register and run a safe food business, get the producer approval and duty or levy obligations in place for what you make, then verify everything with a compliance checklist.
What this journey is for
Making drinks for sale means meeting food law like any food business. On top of that, it means meeting a tax regime that depends on what is in the bottle. Alcohol producers need an HMRC producer approval before they make a drop and pay duty on what they make. Soft-drinks makers may owe the sugar levy. Anyone bottling water from their own source needs the right recognition and abstraction licence. This journey walks you through that path in the order you will live it, from working out which rules apply through to checking you have everything in place.
It does not give you the step-by-step instructions or the figures — those live in the guides it points to. This journey is the map: it tells you where you are, why each stage matters, and which guide to open next.
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Work out which regulations apply to you
Start by getting the picture right. Drinks split sharply: alcohol carries the HMRC duty regime, while soft drinks and bottled water carry the sugar levy, mineral-water recognition and water abstraction. Working out which applies to you first saves you from discovering a missed obligation late. Use the router guide to confirm your route before you commit to anything.
Which food and drink manufacturing regulations apply to your business
Work out which rules apply to what you make. A reference guide that routes you from the shared starting gate to the right path — the alcohol duty regime, or the soft drinks and bottled water rules.
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Register and put your safety foundations in place
A drinks producer is still a food business. Register with your local authority, build a HACCP-based food safety management system, get your labelling right, protect your workers, hold employers' liability insurance, and meet your site's environmental, effluent and packaging duties — a brewery, distillery or bottling line produces high-strength effluent in volume. Get these foundations in place early.
Register and run a safe food and drink manufacturing business
The duties every food and drink manufacturer carries — food business registration, HACCP, the hygiene rating, allergen labelling, workplace health and safety, employers' liability insurance and your site's environmental and packaging duties.
Step 3a: If you make alcohol — get approved and set up your duty
You cannot make alcohol first and seek approval later. Every producer needs an HMRC Alcoholic Products Producer Approval before production — applied for well in advance — then monthly duty returns, wholesaler registration if you sell to the trade, Small Producer Relief if you are eligible, and a premises licence if you sell to the public on site. Apply for the producer approval early, because you cannot brew, distil or ferment for sale until it is granted.
Get approved and pay duty as an alcohol producer: beer, spirits, wine and cider
Get the HMRC gateway in place — the Alcoholic Products Producer Approval before production, monthly duty returns, the wholesaler registration scheme, Small Producer Relief, geographical indications and a premises licence for a taproom or shop.
Step 3b: If you make soft drinks or bottled water — levy, recognition and abstraction
Non-alcoholic drinks carry their own three obligations: the Soft Drinks Industry Levy on added-sugar drinks, formal recognition before you can market a product as natural mineral water, and a water abstraction licence if you draw from your own source. Sort these alongside the universal food-safety duties.
Make soft drinks and bottled water: levy, recognition and water abstraction
The three obligations on top of universal food safety for soft-drinks and water makers — the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, formal recognition for natural mineral water, and a water abstraction licence.
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Verify you have covered everything
Once the moving parts are in motion, take a step back and check the whole picture holds together. A compliance checklist lets you confirm, in one place, that each obligation is genuinely met rather than assumed. Use it as your readiness review before your first production run, and come back to it as your range changes.
Food and drink manufacturer: compliance checklist
Verify you have covered everything before your first production run and as your range changes, so you can confirm you are ready to produce and stay compliant as you grow.
You will also need the general business set-up duties
Alongside the sector-specific path above, every manufacturing business carries a set of general obligations that apply beyond drinks producers and are just as compulsory. As you build the business you will also need to:
- protect the people who work for you — meet your workplace health and safety duties, including the controls for hot processes, confined spaces and the grain dust generated in malting and milling.
- hold employers' liability insurance once you take anyone on.
- handle personal data lawfully — most businesses must complete data protection registration with the ICO.
- meet your fire safety duties for the premises you work from, which matter wherever flammable spirit vapour or dust is present.
These general duties run in parallel with the sector path rather than after it, so set them up as you establish the business. The compliance checklist brings the core workplace duties together so you can confirm they are covered.
Where this leaves you
You now have the shape of the whole task: work out which rules apply, register and run a safe food business, get the producer approval or levy and licensing obligations in place for what you make, and verify the lot — all while putting the general business set-up obligations in place around it. Work the guides in order and you will have a clear, defensible position from your first production run onwards.