Food and Drink R&D Tax Credit Specialists
Food and drink businesses can claim R&D tax relief when they try to achieve a scientific or technological advance, such as reformulating a product to new nutritional targets without losing stability, extending shelf life by new means, or developing a new process. Taste and branding changes alone do not qualify.
What food and drink work qualifies?
Examples that can qualify
- Reducing sugar, salt or fat while keeping texture, stability or shelf life, where the method was uncertain
- Developing new preservation or processing methods
- Plant based or alternative protein formulations with unresolved technical problems
- Scaling a recipe from kitchen to factory where process behaviour changed unpredictably
- New packaging materials tested for barrier or recyclability performance
Examples that usually do not
- New flavours or recipes developed by known methods
- Sensory panels assessing consumer preference
- Labelling, branding and marketing
- Routine food safety and quality testing
What costs do food businesses claim?
Food and drink claims usually include development and technical staff, ingredients and materials used up in trials, utilities used in pilot runs and contracted testing in the UK. Trial batches that are sold do not count as consumables.
How can food businesses strengthen claims?
- Keep trial logs with each formulation, the result and what changed
- Record the technical target, such as a shelf life or nutritional figure
- Separate scale-up trials from normal production in your records
- Record scrapped batches and the reason
What should a food and drink specialist bring?
A food specialist should have food science knowledge so they can identify the uncertainty in the chemistry, microbiology or process engineering, and tell you honestly which development work is routine.
Example: how a food uncertainty is described
Illustration. A bakery manufacturer wanted to reduce sugar in a product by a third while keeping its shelf life and texture. Removing sugar changed water activity and caused the product to stale and grow mould faster, and published reformulation methods did not keep both properties. The food technologists trialled combinations of fibres, enzymes and process changes over many batches before reaching the target. The trials and technologists' time were R&D; the sensory panel for consumer preference was not.
Typical cost profile
| Cost type | How often it features | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Technologists' and development staff costs | Almost always | Time on trials, not routine new product development |
| Ingredients and packaging used in trials | Very common | Exclude trial batches that are sold |
| Utilities in pilot runs | Common | Use a reasoned apportionment |
| External laboratory testing | Common | From April 2024, generally UK work only |
| Factory staff during trials | Sometimes | Separate from normal production |
What does HMRC focus on in food claims?
- Whether the problem was scientific or technological rather than about taste or consumer preference
- Whether known reformulation methods would have worked
- Whether trial batches were sold
- Records of each formulation and its results
Is regulatory reformulation R&D?
Reformulating to meet regulations, such as salt or sugar targets, can be R&D if achieving it involved technological uncertainty. If the change used known substitutes and methods, it is routine.
What should you ask an R&D specialist about food and drink claims?
- Do you have food scientists or technologists on your team?
- How will you separate scientific trials from recipe development?
- How will you treat trial batches, including any that were sold?
- What records should our technical team keep for next year?
Food and drink claims are strongest when the technical team's trial records show the science behind each change, not just the new product.
Frequently asked questions
Does reformulating for new regulations qualify?
It can, if meeting the new requirement involved technological uncertainty that your food scientists could not readily resolve.
Can small food producers claim?
Yes. Company size does not matter, but the work must meet the same definition of R&D.
Do trial ingredients qualify?
Yes, if they were used up or transformed in qualifying R&D and not sold.
Can a small bakery or brewery claim?
Yes, if it carried out genuine R&D. Company size does not matter, but most recipe development uses known methods and does not qualify.
Do shelf life trials qualify?
They can, where extending shelf life involved scientific uncertainty that known preservation methods could not resolve.
Is new packaging R&D?
Developing new packaging materials or structures with uncertain performance can be. Choosing an off the shelf alternative is not.
Get matched with a vetted R&D tax specialist
Tell us what you do and roughly what you spend on development. We check the basics, then introduce you to a specialist from our panel whose sector experience fits your work.
- Free to use, with no obligation to appoint anyone
- Introductions only to firms that meet our panel criteria
- Fee terms in writing from the firm before you sign anything
- We flag claim deadlines we can see from your answers
Our matching service is free for businesses. Specialist firms on our panel pay us a fee when we introduce a business to them. That fee does not change the price a firm quotes you, and you are never obliged to appoint anyone we introduce.