Food exported to the European Union must comply with the relevant laws and regulations of the European Union, otherwise the products will be returned or destroyed. The European Union's Rapid alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) will report all unqualified food and related products. Today, Foodmate will introduce EU food labeling requirements to help everyone understand the relevant content of EU labeling regulations.

1. Introduction to Food Labeling Regulations

(EC) No 1169/2011 "The provision of food information to consumers" is an EU food labeling regulation, which stipulates the content of all food information provided to consumers, and the scope of its supervision is in line with Chinese "National Food Safety Standard, General Rules for the Labeling of Prepackaged Foods (GB7718-2011). In addition, it also includes some nutrition labeling regulations such as the definition of nutrients.

Other related requirements of nutrition and health claims must comply with (EC) No 1924/2006 "Nutrition and health claims made on foods". (EC) No 1924/2006 specifies the basic principles, conditions, nutrients and specific requirements for nutrition and health claims.

The sale of all prepackaged foods needs to comply with (EC) No 1169/2011 and (EC) No 1924/2006 regulations.

In addition to meeting (EC) No 1169/2011 and (EC) No 1924/2006, some special food products also need to meet special food labeling requirements. For example, infant formula foods need to meet (EU) No 2016/128 "supplementing Regulation (EU) No 609/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the specific compositional and information requirements for food for special medical purposes”. The relevant labels of organic foods need to comply with the requirements of (EC) No 834/2007. Moreover, it is also necessary to meet the requirements of (EU) 2018/848 after 1 January, 2021.

2. Mandatory labeling contents

According to (EC) No 1169/2011, in addition to exempted food information, all food labels exported to the EU or sold in EU member states shall be mandatory to indicate the following:

(A) The name of the food;

(B) The list of ingredients;

(C) Allergens;

(D)The quantity of certain ingredients or categories of ingredients (for example: when an ingredient appears in the food name, the content of the ingredient needs to be indicated);

(E) The net quantity of the food;

(F) The date of minimum durability or the ‘use by’ date;

(G) Any special storage conditions and/or conditions of use;

(H)The name or business name and address of the food business;

(I) The country of origin or place of provenance;

(J) Instructions for use where it would be difficult to make appropriate use of the food in the absence of such instructions;

(K) With respect to beverages containing more than 1.2 % by volume of alcohol, the actual alcoholic strength by volume;

(L) A nutrition declaration.

For some specific foods, in addition to the above information, other content specified in the regulations must also be labelled, such as: All ingredients present in the form of engineered nano­materials shall be clearly indicated in the list of ingredients. The names of such ingredients shall be followed by the word ‘nano’ in brackets; for food that have been frozen before sale and which are sold defrosted, the name of the food should be labeled "defrosted"; food that has been treated with ionising radiation should be labeled "irradiated” or “treated with ionising radiation" in the food name.

3. Label format

Without prejudice to the national measures, mandatory food information should be marked in in a conspicuous place in such a way as to be easily visible, clearly legible and, where appropriate, indelible. The x-height of the font size is equal to or greater than 1.2 mm. In case of packaging or containers the largest surface of which has an area of less than 80 cm2, the x-height of the font size referred to in paragraph 2 shall be equal to or greater than 0.9 mm. The name and net quantity of the food shall appear in the same field of vision.

Where 1- Ascender line; 2- Cap line; 3- Mean line; 4- baseline; 5- Descender line; 6- x-height; 7- Font size.

4. Language requirements

The EU requires that mandatory language information must be expressed in words that are easy for consumers to understand; the Member States in which a food is marketed may stipulate that the particulars shall be given in one or more languages from among the official languages of the Union. Therefore, one or more EU official languages can be marked on food packaging.

The above are the basic requirements for EU labeling. Products can only be sold in EU member states after meeting EU requirements.

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Business Division of Food Safety and Regulatory Compliance of Global Foodmate provides food standards & regulations research, labelling compliance consulting/Chinese label design, industry public opinion monitoring and analysis, registration services (of Infant formula, FSMP, Health food, Novel Food Ingredients, Novel Food Additives, New Varieties of Food-Related Products and Overseas manufacturers of imported food) and other comprehensive food safety solutions for domestic and overseas enterprises and institutions in food industry. 

Please feel free to contact us: +86 10 68869850, E-mail: global_info@foodmate.net