Food labelling – What are the legal requirements?

From branding and product descriptions to ingredients and food or allergy warnings, our food and beverage labels have a wide range of applications.

Whether you’re looking to ensure your products comply with UK and EU food safety legislation or helping your customers by providing the nutritional information they need about your product, labels can help you do it effectively.

However, food and drink labels must fit a very strict criteria in order to fit within legal requirements, so, are your labels up to scratch?

Check out our food labelling checklist below to ensure you’re labelling your food and drink products properly.

 

 

Always ensure that your labels are…

• Clear and easy to read
• Permanent
• Easy to understand
• Easily visible
• Not misleading

Also, you must show the following information on the label:

• The name of the food
• A “˜best before’ or “˜use by’ date (or instructions on where to find it)
• Any necessarywarnings, such as nut allergies and gluten
• Net quantity information
• Alist of ingredients (if there’s more than one ingredient)
• The name and address of the manufacturer, packer or seller
• The country of origin, if required
• The lot number or use-by date
• Any special storage conditions
• Instructions for use or cooking, if necessary

 

Include quantity information

Don’t forget that you must put the net quantity in grams, kilograms or litres on the label of packaged food over 5g or 5ml, and packaged herbs and spices.

You must also show the drained net weight of solid foods packed in a liquid (or an ice glaze).

The net quantity must be close enough to the name of the food that you can see all this information at the same time. This also applies to the alcoholic strength for alcoholic drinks.

You don’t have to show the weight or volume on foods sold by number, for example two bread rolls, if you can clearly see the number of items inside the packaging.

 

 

Using the â„® mark

If you put the â„® mark on your label, you can export your product to another European Economic Area (EAA) country without having to meet the weight and measurement requirements of that country.

 

You must also show these if they apply to your product:

• A warning for drinks with an alcohol content above 1.2%
• A warning if the product containsGM ingredients, unless their presence is accidental and 0.9% or less
• A warning if the product has been irradiated
• The words “˜packaged in a protective atmosphere’ if the food is packaged using a packaging gas

 

 

Country of origin

For certain items, you must show their country of origin. These items include:

 

• Meats such as beef, veal, lamb, mutton, pork, goat and poultry
• Fish and shellfish
• Honey
• Olive oil
• Wine
• Fruit and vegetables imported from outside theEU

 

Remember to not mislead your customers with your packaging too! You must show the country of origin if customers might be misled without this information, for example if the label for a pizza shows the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but the pizza is made in the UK.

 

There are also special rules about what you must show on the label if you supply any of the following:

 

• Bottled water
• Bread and flour
• Cocoa and chocolate products
• Fats and oils
• Fish
• Fruit juices and nectars
• Honey
• Jams and preserves
• Meat and meat products
• Milk and milk products
• Soluble coffee
• Sugar

 

If you’re a food manufacturer and you’re in need of some new labels, a labelling machine, or just some friendly advice, give us a call today.

With over 40 years of label making experience, we’ll be more than happy to help, 0116 284 7000.