DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

REVISION 2001

LABELLING

There is lots of information that is included on the labels on the food we buy.    Some information has to be there by law and some does not.

There are EIGHT items that need to be on the label by LAW.

They are --

1. The name of the food being sold:   example cornflakes, or tea bags. Sometimes extra words are needed for a full explanation.   It is no good just saying jam tarts – the consumer would want to know what flavour the tarts are.  If a picture is used, it must not be misleading.

2. List of ingredients.    The ingredients are listed in descending order – the largest first right down to the smallest ingredient being last in the list.    All E numbers have to be given.

3. Storage conditions – how best to keep the food so that it does not go off and give the consumer food poisoning.   Example – keep refrigerated:  store below –18 degrees C:  suitable for home freezing

4. Shelf life – date marking is usually given on foods.   Phrases like ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ are to be found on food items nowadays.  Use by is used for high risk foods that perish quickly.   Best before is for low risk foods which are processed and packaged to have a long shelf life.

5. Instructions for use -  how to prepare and cook the food – e.g. microwave for 3 minutes:  cook at 180 degrees C for 15 minutes in the middle of the oven.

6. Name and address of the company who made the product – e.g. Heinz or Tesco Stores Ltd.   The consumer may want to complain.

7. Place of origin – shows where the food has come from – e.g. oranges from Spain:  green stick beans from Keyna:   or just ‘produce of Greece’.

8. Weight or volume – the Weights and Measures Act of 1985 makes short weight an offence.    The weight of the product must be shown on the packet:  sometimes you find a large e beside a weight.  This means that the amount is an average quantity.

The information given below does not have to be on the label.

But most good manufacturers include this information as a matter of course

They are --

Bar codes – most foods have to have this code so that the electronic scanner at the checkouts can read the code.    Although not strictly needed by laws, 99% if products now have a bar code

Lots of batch marks – these are codes used by the manufacturer which helps them trace the making process of the goods back to the raw ingredients.    There may be problems or complaints from the customer so it is very important that all ingredients can be traced back should they present a problem.

Special information – words like ‘suitable for vegetarians’:  ‘suitable for diabetics’:  ‘this product may contain traces of nuts’.

Opening instructions – for example opening a tetra pack of orange juice.

Environmental issues – if the packaging has been made from sustained forests:  cans like soft drinks, can be recycled.

Nutritional information – most manufacturers have a panel on the label showing the nutritional information of their product.  Customers have come to expect this and sales of a product may go down if this is not shown for some reason.    Usually the nutritional information gives the calories or joules:  the fat content, protein content and the CHO content.    It will give the calories for

the universal standard of 100 grams.   

It may also give the nutritional information for an average sized portion:   for example if a pizza can be served when it is cut into 6 pieces, the information will tell you what is in the 1/6 of the pizza.

If you buy a pack of six pork pies, it will tell you the nutritional content of one pork pie:  it will also tell you the same information for 100 grams.