Labelled with loaf. Credit: Chris Young / www.realbreadcampaign.org CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0
Microbakery labelling tester invitation
Do allergen labels and batch records take the fun out of baking?
ProvenBatch invites UK micro/small bakery owners to help pre-launch testing of new software. It is designed to help small food businesses create ingredients labels and keep the batch and traceability records that go with them.
By and for whom?
Ingredient and allergen labelling is legally required for food that is sold prepacked and food that is pre-packed for direct sale (PPDS, as required by Natasha’s Law).*
ProvenBatch was built by Dave Biley, whose wife runs a cake shed, ‘because the paperwork was taking more time than the baking.’ They’re now at a beta version testing stage and are ‘looking for bakers to try it and tell us honestly where it works and where it does not.’
The invitation to be part of the free, invite-only beta is going out to UK microbakers, cake shed-ers, market stall bakers and small craft bakeries, who make and pack their own bread and bakes for direct retail sale.
What the software creates
- Labels made from each of your recipes, with the ingredients listed in weight order, the 14 allergens emphasised, a batch code and use by (or best before) date, ready to be printed on A4 label sheets or by a label printer.
- Batch and traceability records, so you can see where an ingredient came from and went.
- Allergen cards and a QR code allergen menu for bread and other bakes you sell loose / non-prepacked.
Your end of the deal
In return for free beta access, you’re asked to provide honest feedback, especially constructive criticism and suggestions for improvements if ProvenBatch does not fit the way you make bread and run your business.
Dave says: ‘We are still learning about sourdough, pre-ferments and bake days, and the people who do it every day can tell us best. ProvenBatch helps with the paperwork. The decisions about what goes on a label stay with the baker.’
How to get involved
Places for testers are limited, currently to 30 vetted businesses. Free access to the beta version is open to at least 31 December 2026, with nothing to pay. To apply to be a tester, you can complete the short form at provenbatch.co.uk/beta, or email Dave.
*The Real Bread Campaign continues to lobby for an Honest Crust Act of updated and improved composition, labelling and marketing standards. Our proposals include displaying full ingredients lists to be made mandatory for all bread (and industrial dough products) sold loose / non-prepacked.
In the meantime, we urge all businesses to display this important information voluntarily.
See also
Real Bread Campaign: Finding and sharing ways to make bread better for us, our communities and planet.
Sustain
The Green House
244-254 Cambridge Heath Road
London E2 9DA
020 3559 6777
sustain@sustainweb.org
Sustain advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, promote equity and enrich society and culture.
© Sustain 2026
Registered charity (no. 1018643)
Data privacy & cookies
Icons by Icons8
