11 Dec 2024

Aims and objectives

Product-labelling must comply with the appropriate legal requirements and contain information to enable the safe handling, display, storage and preparation of the product. The management controls of product-labelling activities will ensure that products will be correctly labelled and coded.

Requirements

• There must be clear, accurate and consistent labelling information on all outer cases and food contact packaging.
• There must be a process to verify that ingredient and allergen labelling is correct, based on the product recipe and ingredient specification.
• There must be an effective process in place to ensure that labelling information is reviewed whenever changes occur to the product’s recipe, raw materials, supplier or country of origin of raw materials and when there are legislative changes.
• When a claim is made about a product to satisfy a consumer group, the product formulation and production process must be fully validated to meet the stated claim.
• The choice of print format must provide clear and indelible printing, taking into consideration the handling and storage of the product in the supply chain.
• There must be a process to ensure that only the correctly printed labels and packaging are available at the packaging machines.
• Production lines must be checked before production starts and after any product changes to ensure that lines have been suitably cleared of products and packaging from previous production runs.
• Products must be packed into the correct packaging and correctly labelled.

Minimum requirements – outer case

• Name/description of the product
• Batch code
• Durability date
• Storage conditions
• Name and address of supplier
• Health mark (where applicable)

Minimum requirements – inner food contact packaging

• Name/description of the product
• Batch code
• Durability date
• Health mark (where applicable)