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Is your labelling to standard?
Did you know...
A use by date relates to food safety.
Food must not be sold beyond its use by date as it may not be safe to eat.
A best before date relates to food
quality. Food may be sold beyond its best before date provided it is
safe to eat.
For example, confectionery and biscuits may
not be at their very best quality beyond their best before date - but they
may still be tasty and safe to eat.
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Labelling
Do you manufacture or import foods? If so,
you need to make sure that the labels on your products fully comply with the
composition and labelling requirements of the Food Standards Code.
Since December 2002, the labels on all packaged
food products are required to have:
- Ingredients listed by descending order of
ingoing weight
- Percentage of characterising ingredient
(e.g. % strawberry in strawberry jam) where appropriate
- Nutrition information panel - set out in a
particular way, that includes a column per 100g/100mL of the food (some
foods are exempt from this e.g. alcoholic beverages, tea, herbs, water,
prepared rolls etc)
- Name and street address in Australia (or
New Zealand) of the manufacturer/importer
- Country of origin statement
- Warning and advisory statements where
appropriate e.g. "excess consumption may have a laxative effect" on
products containing certain sweeteners.
- Declarations to indicate if product
contains an allergen such as gluten, seafood, fish, dairy, egg, milk,
peanut, nuts, soy products etc
- Date marking
- Directions for use and storage, where
appropriate
Cormorant keeps up to date with changes to the
legislation and will help you by assessing your labels against the Food
Standards Code.
There is not a standard fee for labelling
assessments. This is because some labels can be very complex to
assess. Therefore, Cormorant provides individual quotations for
particular food products, so you know how much you are up for before you
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