If you run any food business, you must know that clear and accurate labelling take priority over other things. After all, your customers must know about the product they are buying and trust that the ingredients listed on the label are correct. That’s where food label printing comes in.
What are Food Labels?
Food labels inform consumers about the contents, ingredients, and nutritional value of packaged foods for sale. Labels may also provide information on the production circumstances of the item. Numerous government authorities govern food labelling in the food industry. Some labelling information is required, while others are optional.
Food labelling safeguards customers’ health and well-being. It enables them to
- Estimate the relative proportions of each item.
- Determine the quantity of chosen vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients in the food. This information counts for either weight or percentage of a daily required value.
- Inspect meals for allergies, chemicals, or components they want to avoid.
- Learning about the conditions under which specific ingredients get manufactured (e.g. organic, free-range).
- Compare the prices of similar items per unit volume or weight.
- Identify whether nutrients were added or subtracted from the base meal (e.g. enriched, reduced fat).
The labelling rules for various types of food vary. Canned or frozen items, for example, must have different information on their labels than fresh meat, poultry, and fish. Unless the seller sells it as “organic,” fresh vegetables remain subject to voluntary labelling. The regulation addresses the definitions of particular label words (for example, decreased fat), the size of label text, and where specific information must be displayed on the container.
Must-Haves in a Food Label
1. Product title and description
If the dish’s name does not reveal what it is, there must be a meaningful description that conveys the genuine nature of the item. For example, when you see a tetra pack, you may recognise the brand, but its scientific term is “Formulated Milk Drink.”
2. Gross weight
It is the actual weight or volume of the product, excluding any packaging. It includes all liquid in canned items, not only the drained weight.
3. Date stamp
It indicates the optimal time to eat by using a ‘Best-Before’ or ‘Use-By’ date, or a ‘Baked-On’ date for bread.
Most business owners print the use-by dates on perishables and items with a limited shelf life, such as fresh meat packed in supermarkets, chilled salmon, milk, and yoghurt. Products should be consumed or thrown away by the use-by date since food after that date is unsafe to eat, even if there are no visible symptoms of spoiling, such as mould or an off-odour.
Most cereals, biscuits, snack foods, wheat, eggs, canned and frozen meals, and other long-life commodities have best-before dates. It indicates the optimal time for consuming. The food does not rot immediately after the expiration date and may get sold if properly stored and in excellent shape, but its quality has deteriorated.
4. Ingredient List
All components must be listed in decreasing order by incoming weight, from most to least. The ingredient with the highest percentage is stated first, followed by the second, third, and so on.
Additives are listed here by their applicable term, for example, preservative, followed by either their chemical name, for example, (sodium metabisulphite), or by their code number.
Small packets, such as individual confectionery goods, sauces and condiments, sugars and sweeteners, do not require ingredient labels.
5. Panel with nutritional information
This table displays the energy in calories, protein, fat (total and saturated), carbohydrate (total and sugars), and salt in 100 grammes of the food. Depending on whether they claim, foods also include fibre, potassium, monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, and trans fat.
6. Allergen declaration or allergy warning
Allergy patients must know the presence of fish, shellfish, eggs, milk, peanut, tree nuts, sesame, wheat, soy, and lupin. It gets listed in or near the ingredients list, such as ‘Contains egg.’ The allergenic ingredients, such as milk solids, are marked in bold in the ingredient list.
7. Address and name
For customers, the name and street location of the producer, packer, distributor, or importer must be clearly stated (not a P.O. box).
8. Origin country
It indicates the nation or countries where the food was grown, manufactured, or processed. In Australia, professionals must state if the meal contains imported components or a combination of local and foreign ingredients.
9. Instructions for storage
Follow all recommendations; for example, maintain cold at 4 degrees C or less before opening OR refrigerate after opening for the most excellent quality and safety.
10. Lot or batch number
A lot or batch number is required to recall a product in case of a problem or an unintentional error.
Benefits of Food Label Printing
1. Accuracy
When you print your labels with the best food label printers, you can be sure that the information on the label is accurate. It is essential for both legal and customer satisfaction reasons. You don’t want to get in trouble for mislabeling your products, and your customers don’t want to be surprised by unexpected ingredients.
2. Cost-effectiveness
Printing your labels can save you money in the long run. You won’t have to pay for expensive pre-printed labels, and you won’t have to waste time and money re-ordering labels whenever you change your product.
3. Flexibility
With food label printing, you will have complete control over the design of your labels. It means you can change your labels as often as possible without waiting for a new batch of pre-printed labels.
Connect with Professional Food Label Printers: DAL
Label printing is an excellent option in the food business. It is accurate, cost-effective, and flexible, allowing you to create custom product labels that include all relevant information. Now that you have learned about food labels, think about getting them made by professionals of DAL for the best food label solutions.
