Guides / UFI in the UK

Do I need a UFI to sell candles in the UK?

Published 21 September 2026; rules last checked 25 September 2026. A labelling reference, not legal advice.

In Great Britain, no. The UFI, the 16-character code that links a product to a poison-centre submission, is an EU CLP requirement. GB CLP dropped the provision that put it on the label on 31 December 2023 and revoked Annex VIII, the notification scheme that creates it, on 1 January 2024. In Northern Ireland, and for anything you sell into the EU, the EU rule still applies: a candle classified for a health or physical hazard needs a submission and a UFI before it is placed on the market.

Great Britain: no UFI and no notification

In EU CLP the UFI sits in Article 25(7): where the submitter creates a unique formula identifier under Annex VIII, it goes in the supplemental information on the label. Great Britain's version of the regulation no longer has that paragraph. It was omitted on 31 December 2023 by SI 2023/1344, and Annex VIII itself was revoked on 1 January 2024 under the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023. The Health and Safety Executive describes the GB scheme for giving product information to the National Poisons Information Service as voluntary. So a candle, melt or diffuser sold only in Great Britain needs no UFI and no poison-centre submission, whatever it is classified for.

If the same label also serves the EU or Northern Ireland, the UFI can stay on it. GB CLP keeps Article 25(3), which allows supplemental information that does not make the mandatory elements harder to identify and does not contradict them.

Northern Ireland and the EU: yes, for health or physical hazards

Northern Ireland follows EU CLP under the Windsor Framework, so the EU position applies there and to every sale into an EU member state. Annex VIII, Part A, section 3.1 requires, before a mixture is placed on the market, a submission of information on mixtures "classified as hazardous on the basis of their health or physical effects" to the appointed body in each member state where it is placed. For mixtures for consumer use the duty has applied since 1 January 2021 (section 1.1). Three things follow for a maker:

• Which candles. A candle classified for skin sensitisation (H317), skin or eye irritation, or any other health or physical hazard is in. A candle classified only for the aquatic environment (H410, H411, H412, H413) is out.
• Where the code comes from. The submitter creates the UFI with the generator ECHA provides, free of charge (section 5.1). It is a code per formulation, not per batch: a new one is needed when the composition changes in the ways Part B, section 4.1 describes.
• Where it goes. Printed as "UFI:" followed by the code, clearly visible, legible and indelibly marked (section 5.2), in the supplemental information section of the label, or on the inner packaging together with the other label elements (section 5.3). Article 32(4) keeps the supplemental information with the other Article 17 elements.

The EU answer goes further: the submission, when several scents can share one, and when a change needs a new code.

The UFI is not a batch number, and not the oil's UFI

Two mix-ups turn up in every forum thread on this. The first treats the UFI as a batch code; it is not, it identifies a formulation. The second copies the UFI from the fragrance oil bottle onto the candle label. That code belongs to the supplier's submission for the oil. Your candle is a different mixture, wax and fragrance, and where a UFI is needed it is created for the candle by the person placing the candle on the market.

Selling from Great Britain into the EU since 1 July 2026

A newer EU rule matters to any GB maker who posts candles to EU customers. Article 4(11) of CLP, added by Regulation (EU) 2024/2865 and applying from 1 July 2026, says a mixture "shall not be placed on the market unless a supplier established in the Union, which shall be identified on the label, in the course of an industrial or professional activity fulfils the requirements set out in this Regulation". In plain terms, an EU label now has to name a supplier established in the EU who takes on the CLP duties, the poison-centre submission among them. How that is arranged for a small maker selling by post or through a marketplace is between the maker, any EU importer or partner and the marketplace; the text does not say, and neither do we.

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