Essential Food Labeling Requirements: What You Need to Know

When developing a new prepared food product for sale or looking to export your product to other countries, it’s important to add food labeling to your plan of action. Food label planning isn’t just about the design; it’s about the content, too. Accurate ingredient labels, allergen information, nutritional information and so on, are a regulatory obligation intended to keep consumers safe and informed.

Around the world, each country has its own unique food labeling laws. Understanding the requirements of each of your chosen markets can be challenging. For example, the terminology used can differ greatly from country to country – even between the US and Canada.

When it comes to food compliance, the onus lies with the food manufacturer and/or importer. They must ensure they comply with the food label regulations of each country they export to. This includes ensuring formulas, including food additives, are compliant for the country of sale and that bilingual requirements are met, including allergen information.

Ensure your compliance by seeking expert advice. At NSF, our consultants can help you navigate food regulations and labeling requirements – and provide official food label translations – of each country you’re exporting to, so you can focus on growing your business.

Food label requirements and terminology will differ in Canada, the U.S., the EU, the UK and other countries and regions around the world – there’s no one-size-fits-all.

Our expert team can help you get started and guide you through the food labeling requirements and terminology of your target markets. This would include a full label review to ensure you comply with the relevant food regulations.

Depending on the destination country, a compliant food label design might include, but not be limited to:

• Legal name – known as a statement of identity in the US, and a common name in Canada.
• Nutrition information – known as Nutrition Fact Panels (NFP) in the US, and Nutrition Facts tables (NFt) in Canada.
• Ingredient list including allergens.
• Company name and address.
• Country of origin.
• Net quantity statement.
• Storage conditions.

Food and beverage products, including shelf-ready foods such as soups, pastas, pizzas and peanut butter, are common exports. When exporting food and beverage products to another region globally, be advised that you will need to adapt existing labels to comply with food labeling requirements of the new country of sale.

Food label adaptations might include anything from the type of information included to the position of information on packaging, and even the font size. It’s also important to continually monitor countries for regulatory updates and changes, which might require recipes to be reformulated and labels amended accordingly.

Interpreting changes can be challenging, but our experts can help you to unravel complexities and understand exactly how they apply to your business and what you need to do to ensure you achieve and maintain compliance.

Food labeling management requires knowledge, understanding and dedication, especially if you’re exporting to more than one country.

For example, a recipe that might comply with US food regulations and food labeling requirements might not comply with UK or EU food regulations. Closer to home, and even the US and Canada have different food label requirements.

The need to have unique labeling for each country you’re exporting to can be costly. It’s therefore important to factor this in when making business decisions concerning plans for exporting food and beverage products.

The reality is that food labeling regulations are not black and white; there are many grey areas that benefit from expert insight to interpret and understand. Here at NSF, we have a wide pool of experts to draw on who can bring clarity to the grey.

Our food and beverage consulting services can help you achieve and maintain food labeling compliance in all of your markets, new and existing.