Writing Product Specifications: What to Include and Why Buyers Ask for Them

The document that gets you taken seriously

The first time a serious buyer asks for your product specification, it can catch you off guard. You know your product inside out, but you may never have written it all down in the formal way a buyer, or a SALSA auditor, expects. A product specification is that formal description, and having good ones is a mark of a professional supplier and a requirement in most certification standards.

Here's what a specification is, what goes in it, and why it matters.

What a product specification is

A product specification (often just "spec") is a detailed technical document that fully describes a product: what it is, what's in it, how it should be stored, how long it lasts, and the standards it meets. It's not your marketing description; it's the reference document that defines the product precisely, for your own records, for buyers, and for auditors.

Specs serve several purposes at once. They ensure consistency (everyone making or buying the product knows exactly what it should be), they give buyers the information they need to list and sell your product safely, and they form part of your food safety documentation, feeding directly into your HACCP plan and labelling.

What to include

A thorough product specification typically covers:

1. Product name and description: the full, accurate name and a clear description of what the product is.
2. Ingredients: the full ingredients list, in descending order of weight, including any additives and processing aids.
3. Allergens: which of the 14 allergens are present, declared clearly. This is one of the most important sections for a buyer.
4. Nutritional information: the nutrition declaration per the standard format.
5. Product characteristics: relevant physical and chemical parameters, such as pH, water activity, weight, or dimensions, where applicable.
6. Shelf life and storage: the shelf life, the type of date mark, and the storage conditions (and conditions after opening where relevant).
7. Packaging: how the product is packed, including pack sizes and packaging materials.
8. Labelling: the label information, or a copy of the label.
9. Microbiological and quality criteria: any standards the product is expected to meet, where relevant.
10. Origin and supplier information: where relevant for traceability.
11. Standards and certifications: any certifications the product or your business holds.

Not every product needs every field filled to the same depth, but a buyer-ready spec covers the essentials clearly, especially ingredients, allergens, shelf life, storage, and packaging.

Why buyers ask for them

When a retail or trade buyer requests your specifications, they're not being bureaucratic. They need that information to do their own job safely and legally:

• To check the product meets their requirements and is safe and legal
• To ensure allergen information is accurate for their customers
• To set up the product correctly in their systems
• To satisfy their own due diligence and food safety obligations
• To compare and manage the products they stock consistently

A producer who can provide clear, accurate, professional specifications immediately is far easier to deal with than one who can't, and it signals that the business behind the product is well-run. In that sense, good specs are part of being a supplier a buyer can trust, which we cover more fully in our guide to supplying retail.

Specs and your HACCP plan are linked

Your product specifications and your HACCP plan draw on the same underlying information. Your HACCP plan includes product descriptions covering composition, allergens, intended use, and shelf life, the same core facts a specification captures. Keeping the two consistent matters: if your spec says one thing and your HACCP plan another, that's exactly the kind of mismatch an auditor notices.

This is a strong argument for holding your product information in one place rather than duplicating it across separate documents that drift apart. When your product descriptions, allergen information, and shelf-life details live alongside your HACCP plan, your specifications draw on the same accurate source, and a change to a product updates consistently rather than in one document but not the other. FoodSafe keeps your product and allergen information with your HACCP plan, so the facts behind your specifications stay aligned with your documented food safety system.

Keep them current

Like everything else in food safety, a specification is only useful if it's accurate, which means keeping it current. Every recipe change, ingredient substitution, supplier change, or packaging change can affect the spec, and an out-of-date specification, particularly one with wrong allergen information, is worse than none at all because a buyer may rely on it. Build the habit of reviewing the spec whenever the product changes, the same trigger that should prompt a HACCP and label review.

A mark of a professional supplier

Writing clear, complete product specifications turns the knowledge in your head into a document buyers and auditors can rely on. Cover the essentials thoroughly, keep allergen and shelf-life information accurate, keep the specs consistent with your HACCP plan, and update them whenever the product changes. Good specifications won't win you a listing on their own, but their absence will lose you one, and their presence marks you out as a supplier worth dealing with.

For the related question of what must appear on the product's label, see our guide to UK food labelling.

Food safety compliance, handled.