1. Prescribed Name, Name or Description of Food – Labelled on front and back of pack ‘Chutney’. This food item doesn’t have a prescribed name and the word ‘Chutney’ is sufficient to indicate the true nature of the food.
2. Company Name and Address – Labelled on front and back of pack ‘Mrs Bridges’ and physical address. As this product is sold in Australia it needs to follow Standard 1.2.2-4 and must have an Australian or New Zealand business name (including the importer) and business address.
3. Weights and Measures Declarations – The National Trade Measurement Regulations 2009 regulate the weight of this pre-packed food. Division 4.4 – 4.10(1) A measurement marking on a package must be made on the principal display panel.  This product is missing the weight measure on front of pack which is required.
4. (Production) Lot Identification – Nice and clear labelled as ‘Batch Code: 7173’.
5. (Shelf Life) Date Marking – As the best-before date is more than 3 months from the date it is applied the day date does not need to be present. The word ‘End’ is an extra word not required.
6. Directions of Use and Storage – Clear instructions
7. Country of Origin – As this item is not a ‘non-priority’ food it requires a clearly defined box around the statement ‘Made in Scotland’. For example Made in Scotland.
8. Nutrition, Health and Related Claims – No claims made on product
9. Nutrition Information Requirements – Extra information required on the nutrition information panel. Interesting to note foods in small packages are not required to have a nutrition information panel (less than 100cm squared).  A quick calculation has the surface area over 100cm squared.  The following information needs to be added; Servings per package, Serving size and Quantity per serving.  The table layout also needs to comply with S12-2 which will include removing the words ‘of which’ and ‘salt’.  When the word ‘salt’ is replaced with ‘sodium’ the unit of measure needs to be replaced with mg.  Also moving protein up the list below energy.
10. Characterising Ingredients and Components of Food – As beetroot and orange are the characterising ingredient due to being mentioned in the name of the food. Percentages are clearly given in the ingredient list for both ingredients.
11. List of Ingredients – Appears all ingredients are listed by the common, descriptive or generic name in descending order of ingoing weight. Options available for the declaration of substances used as food additives in this example thickener modified maize starch E1404.  This type of food additives must be listed by their class name followed by the name of the food additive or the food additive number, which is done on this label.  Other examples to list this ingredient can be Thickener (E1404) or Thickener (1404) or Oxidised Starch.
12. Warning and Advisory Statement – The allergy present in Malt Vinegar is clearly labelled in bold as BARLEY. This meets all requirements.  Interesting to note mustard is in bold also indicating an allergy ingredient.  This is due to the UK having different regulations regarding which allergies to declare.    
13. Legibility Requirements – No issues

 

Updates required to artwork – An update to the label is required to meet Australian Food Standards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Prescribed Name, Name or Description of Food – Official name on the label for this product is on the back as ‘HOMOGENISED PASTEURISED 2% FAT MILK’. On the front label it has the words ‘SMARTER WHITE MILK’ with the first two words coloured yellow and the last word coloured white.  This statement is a registered trade mark (1546065) for the words not the style, shape, colour etc.  Is this misleading consumers as having the word ‘milk’ a different colour to separate itself from the trade mark?  At least the statement ‘Full Cream Taste’ is all in the same colour.  The food standards code 2.5.1 gives the definition of milk and skim milk.  In 2.5.1-4 has a requirement of retail sale as cow’s milk which this product does not comply due to milk fat levels being less than 32 g/kg.
2. Company Name and Address – Pauls the brand and the company Parmalat Australia clearly labelling with the physical address.
3. Weights and Measures Declarations – Clear and correct 2L on the front of the label. The ‘2L’ on the back and the red ‘2’ behind the barcode is extra information.  Having the 2L on the back label is helpful for manufacturing to quickly check the correct label is applied.
4. (Production) Lot Identification – Codes printed on the bottle face. EST NO. is also part of the lot identification which is the export establishment number that produces edible prescribed goods for export.  As per the Export Control (Milk and Milk Products) Orders 2005 the registration number of the establishment at which the milk and milk product are last prepared (other than handled, loaded or stored) before being exported.  Why have establishment numbers when the product is sold in Australia?  The date and lot identification machine at manufacturing is set up to comply with domestic or export to reduce errors.
5. (Shelf Life) Date Marking – This product has a use-by date, for a food for sale, means the date after which it is estimated that the food for sale should not be consumed because of health or safety reasons. No year is given for less than 3 months from the date the day and month must be present.  However as the month is expressed in letters the day ‘21’ could be in any order.
6. Directions of Use and Storage – As this is a ‘use by’ product the storage information is important and has clear temperature range.
7. Country of Origin – This product was purchased before the new Country of Origin labelling and the ‘Product of Australia’ is correct.
8. Nutrition, Health and Related Claims – ‘Only 2% Fat’ claims is made on the front and back of the bottle. This is correct as the nutrition information panel has the total fat per 100mL at 2.0g.  The second claim on the pack is in the ingredients listing as ‘reduced fat milk (2.0% fat)’.  This meets the definition of a nutrition content claim as per section 1.1.2-9 and comparative claims 1.2.7-16.  In table S4-3 fat is column 1, reduced is column 3 and therefore have this statement on pack ‘The food contains at least 25% less fat than in the same amount of *reference food’.  The reference food can be in this case ‘milk’ and the percentage could be adjusted to 37.5%.
9. Nutrition Information Requirements – The nutrition information panel meets all requirements. Calcium is also listed in the table as it is not in section S4-3 it may only state the specified amount of the property (Calcium) in a specified amount of that food.  The recommended dietary intake for this property in S-3 is shown in column 3; 800mg.
10. Characterising Ingredients and Components of Food – NA
11. List of Ingredients – Two ingredients used in this product; Reduced fat milk (2.0% fat), milk solids. As per the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code 10-2 Generic names of ingredients and conditions of their use milk solids may be used to describe (a) milk powder, skim milk powder or dried milk products; or (b) any 2 or more of the following ingredients: (i) whey; (ii) whey powder; (iii) whey proteins; (iv) lactose; (v) caseinates; (vi) milk proteins; (vii) milk fat.
12. Warning and Advisory Statement – Milk is listed in the ingredients list which is an allergy. As per Food Standard 1.2.3 table S9-2 this product is milk that contains no more than 2.5% m/m fat and the corresponding advisory statement ‘the product is not suitable as a complete milk replacement for children under 2 years’.  The start of the advisory statement is missing the words ‘the product is’ on the label.
13. Legibility Requirements – No issues
14. Other Information (Open) Marketing claims – ‘100% Australian Milk’ claim on front of pack.  As per point 7 this product is product of Australia and therefore Australian milk.