packaging-spec

---
name: packaging-spec
description: Turns your current packaging list, your supplier invoices, your dish list and one measured delivery journey into a written packaging specification: every item checked against the England single-use plastics ban, every item checked as food contact safe, the right container matched to each dish with a held temperature, the tamper and label position settled, the cost per dish, the Extended Producer Responsibility threshold test answered, and a dated switching list. Use before you order another pallet of containers, or after a run of spilled, crushed or cold complaints you are paying for.
---

# A packaging specification that keeps the food intact, keeps you out of the plastics ban, and shows the cost of every lid

You give this the packaging you currently buy with its invoices, the dishes each item carries, the measured journey from your delivery-menu work and your supplier's product specifications. You get back a written specification: which of your current items are now unlawful to supply in England, which are food contact compliant and on what evidence, which container belongs on which dish and what temperature it holds, where the tamper seal and the allergen label go, the cost per dish, and a switching list with prices and dates. It will not tell you what packaging other venues use or what a typical packaging cost per order is. No published figure exists for a single independent UK venue, and buying to somebody else's spec is how a kitchen ends up with three thousand lids that do not fit.

## What it does

1. **List every item you actually buy, from the invoice and not from memory.** One row per item: the product name exactly as the supplier prints it, the material, the size, the pack quantity, the pack price, the invoice date and the supplier. Include the things nobody counts: the bag, the sticker, the cutlery set, the napkin, the sauce pot, the lid that is ordered separately from the base. Most venues discover at this step that they are buying two overlapping container ranges because somebody ordered in a hurry once, and the cost of that is visible only when the list is in one place.

2. **Check every item against the England single-use plastics ban before anything else, because an unlawful item is not a cost decision.** The Environmental Protection (Plastic Plates etc. and Polystyrene Containers etc.) (England) Regulations 2023 prohibit supplying single-use plastic plates, trays and bowls, single-use plastic cutlery, balloon sticks, and single-use polystyrene food or drink containers and cups. Single-use means an item "not designed or intended to be re-used". The offence provisions make a supplier "liable on summary conviction to a fine". Mark every item on your list as banned, exempt or not applicable, and name the regulation that decided it.

3. **Understand the packaging exemption properly, because it is the part owners get wrong in both directions.** Regulation 3 carries its own carve out: "Paragraph (1) does not apply to the supply of a single-use plastic plate, tray or bowl that is packaging." The GOV.UK guidance explains what that means in practice, that the exemption covers items which are "packaging, pre-filled or filled at the point of sale". So a plastic tray you fill with a curry and seal is packaging and is outside the plate, tray and bowl ban. A plastic plate you hand a customer to eat from is not. The polystyrene ban is different and narrower in a way that helps nobody in a takeaway: GOV.UK states that "Polystyrene boxes used to transport unprocessed or unprepared food through the supply chain are not banned", which is about the fish coming in, not the burger going out. Record the reasoning for every item rather than the conclusion alone.

4. **Confirm each item is fit to touch food, and keep the evidence.** Regulation 1935/2004 requires that materials and articles intended to come into contact with food be manufactured so that under normal or foreseeable use they do not transfer constituents to food in quantities which could "endanger human health", "bring about an unacceptable change in the composition of the food" or "bring about a deterioration in the organoleptic characteristics thereof". It also requires that "labelling, advertising and presentation of a material or article shall not mislead the consumers". Your evidence is the supplier's declaration of compliance and the product specification. Ask for it, file it with a date, and record any item for which you have nothing. This matters most on the items bought cheapest and thought about least, which are usually the hot lid and the sauce pot.

5. **Match a container to each dish against the measured journey, not against the dish size.** The delivery-menu skill produced a maximum journey time. Packaging is what decides whether a dish survives it. The Food Standards Agency states the requirement for both directions: "Food that needs refrigerating must be kept cool while being transported. This may need to be packed in an insulated box with a coolant gel or in a cool bag. Equally, food that needs to be kept hot should be packed in an insulated bag." Record for each dish the container, the lid, whether it vents, whether it is insulated, and the temperature the food actually held at the end of the measured journey when somebody tested it with a probe. A container chosen on capacity alone is a guess about physics.

6. **Decide the vent question dish by dish, because it is the trade off that decides whether food arrives soggy or cold.** A sealed container holds heat and traps steam. A vented container releases steam and loses heat. There is no container that does both, so the choice belongs to the dish: anything crisp is vented and anything wet, saucy or fragile is sealed, and a dish with both is split into two containers or taken off the menu by the delivery-menu skill. Record the decision and the reason on every row, because this is the single most common cause of a complaint that both the kitchen and the rider blame on the other.

7. **Settle the tamper seal, the label position and the allergen label in one pass.** The allergen answer at the door is a legal requirement covered by allergen-on-delivery, and the physical place it goes is a packaging decision made here. Decide where the sticker sits so that it seals the container and carries the information at once, and check that it does not cover a vent you just specified. Record which item carries the order number, which carries the allergen information, and which carries the tamper evidence, because if the answer is the same small sticker for all three you have a peeling label and no evidence of anything.

8. **Cost it per dish, and answer the Extended Producer Responsibility question with a yes or a no.** Divide the pack price by the pack quantity to a per unit pence figure with the invoice date attached, then attach the right items to each dish and add them up. On the waste side, a business is an obligated producer only where it "supplied or imported more than 25 tonnes of packaging in the UK in the previous year" and its "annual turnover worldwide was GBP 1 million or more". Record both figures and the conclusion. If you are over both, a small producer must "register with your environmental regulator", "report packaging data every year" and "keep required data for 7 years", and a large producer has further duties including recycling notes and a fee. The answer belongs in the file whichever way it goes.

9. **Hand the whole list to Codex to build the specification.** Every judgement is already made: the ban classification, the food contact evidence, the container match, the vent decision and the label positions are the owner's. Run:

   ```
   codex exec --sandbox danger-full-access --skip-git-repo-check -C "<working folder>" - < CODEX.md
   ```

   Claude hands over the item list with invoices, the ban classification with its reason, the food contact evidence references, the dish to container mapping with probe temperatures, the vent and seal decisions, the label positions and the two Extended Producer Responsibility figures. Codex returns the specification sheet, the unlawful item list, the cost per dish, the threshold test and a gaps file. Codex classifies nothing and costs nothing it was not given.

10. **Write the switching list, with prices, lead times and a date.** Anything marked unlawful, anything with no food contact evidence and anything that failed the probe test goes on a list with a proposed replacement, its supplier, its price and its lead time. Put the date every price was read in the footer and put a stock run out date against each item, because switching a container is not an instruction, it is a stock decision, and the worst version of this is running out of the new lid on a Friday while a pallet of the old one sits in the yard.

## Then it checks

1. Every packaging item on the list carries a supplier, a product name exactly as printed, a pack price, a pack quantity and an invoice date, and none is described only as a monthly spend.
2. Every item is classified against the England single-use plastics ban as banned, exempt or not applicable, and the regulation or guidance sentence that decided it is named on the row.
3. Every item has a recorded food contact evidence reference or is explicitly recorded as having none.
4. Every dish on the delivery menu has a container, a lid and a vented or sealed decision with its reason, and a probe temperature recorded at the end of the measured journey or an explicit note that none was taken.
5. The file records which item carries the order number, which carries the allergen information and which carries the tamper evidence, and states whether any label covers a vent.
6. The Extended Producer Responsibility test records both the tonnage figure and the turnover figure and reaches a stated conclusion from them, rather than a fee.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is.
- Never state a typical packaging cost per order, a benchmark packaging share of revenue, or what packaging comparable venues use. No published figure exists for a single independent UK venue, the figures that circulate come from packaging suppliers, and an owner who buys to a borrowed spec buys containers that do not fit their own dishes.
- Never classify an item as exempt from the plastics ban because a supplier's website says so. The supplier is selling it. The classification comes from the Regulations and the GOV.UK guidance, and the sentence that decided it is written on the row.
- Never record a food contact material as compliant without a document. A supplier's verbal assurance is not a declaration of compliance, and the items with no paperwork are almost always the cheap ones in daily contact with hot food.
- Never specify a container from a catalogue photograph. The test is a filled container, the measured journey and a probe, and anything else is a hope with a product code.
- Never let one sticker carry the order number, the allergen information and the tamper seal. When it peels or is cut you lose all three at once, and one of the three is a legal duty.
- Never switch a packaging item without a stock run out date and a lead time. A correct specification that arrives after you have run out is an incorrect specification on the night.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner to check with their packaging supplier on product specifications and declarations of compliance, their environmental health officer on food contact and temperature, their accountant on cost and any Extended Producer Responsibility duty, and their solicitor or trading standards officer on the plastics ban classification. It applies published rules to a draft specification. It is not legal advice and it is not a ruling that any item complies.

## Built from
- The Environmental Protection (Plastic Plates etc. and Polystyrene Containers etc.) (England) Regulations 2023, SI 2023/982, regulations 1 to 5, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/982/body/made, made 7 September 2023 and in force on the twenty fourth day after that day as regulation 1(2) provides, read 23 September 2026: the prohibitions, the single-use definition, the packaging exemption in regulation 3 and the fine on summary conviction, in steps 2 and 3.
- Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, "Single-use plastics ban: plates, bowls, trays, containers, cutlery and balloon sticks", https://www.gov.uk/guidance/single-use-plastics-ban-plates-bowls-trays-containers-cutlery-and-balloon-sticks, published 22 January 2024 and updated 7 October 2024, read 23 September 2026: the point of sale packaging wording, the single-use definition, the supply chain polystyrene carve out and the enforcement and inspection position, in steps 2 and 3.
- Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 on materials and articles intended to come into contact with food, Article 3, as it applies in the United Kingdom, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/1935/article/3, read 23 September 2026: the general safety requirement and the non misleading presentation duty in step 4.
- Food Standards Agency and GOV.UK, "Food safety for food delivery", https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/food-safety-for-food-delivery/food-safety-for-food-delivery, published 26 March 2020, read 23 September 2026: the insulated box, coolant gel and insulated bag requirements and the cleaning between loads, in steps 5 and 6.
- The Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013, SI 2013/2996, Schedule 4, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/2996/schedule/4/made, read 23 September 2026: the 8 degree and 63 degree holding requirements that the probe test in step 5 is measured against.
- Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, "Extended producer responsibility for packaging: who is affected and what to do", https://www.gov.uk/guidance/extended-producer-responsibility-for-packaging-who-is-affected-and-what-to-do, updated 19 August 2026, read 23 September 2026: the 25 tonne and GBP 1 million thresholds and the small and large producer duties in step 8.
- HM Revenue and Customs, "Catering, takeaway food (VAT Notice 709/1)", https://www.gov.uk/guidance/catering-takeaway-food-and-vat-notice-7091, updated 8 June 2026, read 23 September 2026: the test that standard rates food "provided to a customer in packaging that retains heat", which is why every packaging change in step 5 is reported to the commission-maths file.
- Deliveroo, "Deliveroo Partners Terms and Conditions", https://merchants.deliveroo.com/en-GB/legal/terms, page states last updated 14 January 2021 with later dated sections, read 23 September 2026: the clause returning a temperature refund to the venue where the order "wasn't packaged in accordance with these terms", which is the commercial reason step 5 is evidenced with a probe.

# packaging-spec

## You are given
The full packaging purchase list for one UK hospitality business, taken from supplier invoices, with for each item the product name exactly as the supplier prints it, the material, the size, the pack quantity, the pack price, the invoice date and the supplier name. The owner's classification of every item against the England single-use plastics ban, recorded as banned, exempt or not applicable, with the regulation or guidance sentence the owner relied on quoted exactly. The food contact evidence reference for every item, being the supplier declaration of compliance or product specification with its date, or the owner's explicit statement that none exists. The delivery dish list with the maximum measured journey time from the delivery-menu work. The owner's mapping of which container, lid, bag, sauce pot, cutlery set and label attaches to each dish. The owner's vented or sealed decision for every dish with the reason. The probe temperature recorded at the end of the measured journey for each dish, with the date it was taken, or the note that no probe test was performed. The owner's decision on which packaging item carries the order number, which carries the allergen information and which carries the tamper evidence, and whether any label covers a vent. The owner's figures for packaging tonnage supplied in the previous year and worldwide annual turnover. The proposed replacement item, supplier, price, lead time and stock run out date for anything the owner has decided to switch. All judgement calls, including every ban classification, every container match, every vent decision and every switch, have already been made by the owner and are supplied to you.

## Produce
Write into a `./packaging-spec-output/` folder:

1. `packaging-items.csv` with these columns in this order: `item_ref`, `product_name_verbatim`, `supplier`, `material`, `size`, `pack_quantity`, `pack_price_gbp`, `invoice_date`, `unit_cost_gbp`, `ban_classification`, `ban_reason_verbatim`, `food_contact_evidence`, `evidence_date`. `item_ref` is P001 upward. `ban_classification` is exactly one of `banned`, `exempt as packaging`, `exempt other`, `not applicable`, `not stated`. `food_contact_evidence` is exactly one of `declaration of compliance supplied`, `product specification supplied`, `none supplied`. `unit_cost_gbp` is `pack_price_gbp` divided by `pack_quantity` and is left empty where either input is missing.
2. `unlawful-items.csv` with columns: `item_ref`, `product_name_verbatim`, `supplier`, `ban_classification`, `ban_reason_verbatim`, `stock_on_hand_stated`, `replacement_item`, `replacement_supplier`, `replacement_price_gbp`, `lead_time_days`, `stock_run_out_date`. Only rows whose `ban_classification` is `banned` appear. Every row missing a replacement is listed in `gaps.md`.
3. `dish-packaging.csv` with columns: `dish_ref`, `dish_name_verbatim`, `container_item_ref`, `lid_item_ref`, `bag_item_ref`, `sauce_pot_item_ref`, `cutlery_item_ref`, `label_item_ref`, `vented_or_sealed`, `vent_reason_verbatim`, `insulated`, `probe_temperature_c`, `probe_taken_after_minutes`, `probe_date`. `vented_or_sealed` is exactly one of `vented`, `sealed`, `split into two containers`, `not stated`. `insulated` is `yes`, `no` or `not stated`. Every row with an empty `probe_temperature_c` is listed in `gaps.md`.
4. `label-positions.csv` with columns: `dish_ref`, `carries_order_number`, `carries_allergen_information`, `carries_tamper_evidence`, `same_label_for_all_three`, `label_covers_a_vent`. The first three columns hold an `item_ref` or `not stated`. `same_label_for_all_three` and `label_covers_a_vent` are `yes`, `no` or `not stated`. Every row where `same_label_for_all_three` is `yes` or `label_covers_a_vent` is `yes` is listed in `gaps.md`.
5. `packaging-cost-per-dish.csv` with columns: `dish_ref`, `dish_name_verbatim`, `container_cost_gbp`, `lid_cost_gbp`, `bag_cost_gbp`, `sauce_pot_cost_gbp`, `cutlery_cost_gbp`, `label_cost_gbp`, `total_packaging_cost_gbp`, `costing_complete`. `costing_complete` is `yes` or `no`, and is `no` wherever any attached item has an empty `unit_cost_gbp`.
6. `epr-threshold-test.md` recording, on separate lines and nothing else: the packaging tonnage supplied in the previous year as the owner stated it; whether that is more than 25 tonnes; the worldwide annual turnover as the owner stated it; whether that is GBP 1 million or more; and the resulting conclusion stated as `obligated producer`, `not obligated on tonnage`, `not obligated on turnover` or `not stated`. Every line names where the figure came from.
7. `switching-list.csv` with columns: `item_ref`, `product_name_verbatim`, `reason_for_switch`, `replacement_item`, `replacement_supplier`, `replacement_unit_cost_gbp`, `current_unit_cost_gbp`, `unit_cost_difference_gbp`, `lead_time_days`, `stock_run_out_date`, `order_by_date`. `reason_for_switch` is exactly one of `banned in England`, `no food contact evidence`, `failed probe test`, `owner decision`, `not stated`. `order_by_date` is `stock_run_out_date` minus `lead_time_days` and is left empty where either input is missing.
8. `gaps.md` a numbered list of: every item with no invoice date or pack quantity; every item classified `not stated` against the ban; every item with no food contact evidence; every dish with no probe temperature; every dish with `vented_or_sealed` recorded as `not stated`; every row where one label carries all three functions or covers a vent; every banned item with no replacement; every switching row with no order by date; and any figure the owner supplied without a date.

## Rules
- Codex tabulates, calculates, sorts and records. It never classifies an item against the plastics ban, never decides whether a material is food contact safe, never chooses a container, never decides vented or sealed, and never decides to switch an item. Those were supplied.
- Never estimate a missing number. An item with no pack quantity has an empty unit cost and a line in `gaps.md`. A dish with any uncosted attached item reports `costing_complete` as `no` rather than a partial total presented as a full one.
- Never write a typical packaging cost per order, a benchmark packaging share of revenue, a comparison with other venues or any industry figure into any file. No such figure exists for a single independent UK venue and none is to be recorded.
- Never treat a supplier's marketing claim as a ban classification or as food contact evidence. Only the owner's supplied classification with its quoted regulation sentence, and a dated declaration of compliance or product specification, are recorded as such.
- Never infer a probe temperature from a container's insulation claim. An empty probe cell stays empty and is recorded in `gaps.md`.
- Never quietly reconcile an item that appears twice under different product names. Record both rows as supplied and list the suspected duplicate in `gaps.md` for the owner to resolve.
- Use British English, GBP written as `GBP` or the pound sign, DD Month YYYY dates, and temperatures written in degrees Celsius. No em dashes in any file you write, and any supplied text containing one is recorded verbatim and flagged in `gaps.md`.
- Every product name, supplier name, reason and quoted regulation sentence is copied exactly as supplied, including its punctuation and capitalisation.
- Every file ends with this line: this is a working document prepared for the owner to check with their packaging supplier on specifications and declarations of compliance, their environmental health officer on food contact and temperature, their accountant on cost and any producer responsibility duty, and their solicitor or trading standards officer on the plastics ban classification. It applies supplied rules to a draft specification and is not legal advice or a ruling that any item complies.

## Return
The absolute path of every file written, the row count of each CSV, the total number of packaging items listed, the number classified `banned` and their product names, the number with no food contact evidence and their product names, the number of dishes with no probe temperature, the number of dishes where one label carries all three functions, the total packaging cost per dish for each dish or the word incomplete, the conclusion recorded in `epr-threshold-test.md` stated in full with the two figures it rests on, the earliest `order_by_date` on the switching list, and the `gaps.md` item count.