What does food labeling mean?
Marking food and drinks in accordance with regulations and in a consumer-friendly way
Food labeling refers to the marking of food packaging with information that informs consumers about the ingredients, nutritional values and origin of the products and enables complete traceability of the food. Food labeling is mandatory for the food and beverage industry and is defined in the EU-wide Food Information Regulation (EU Regulation 1169/2001), LMIV for short.
What is mandatory for food labeling?
Required information according to LMIV
The Food Information Regulation specifies numerous mandatory details that the food and beverage industry has to print on product packaging. Mandatory information includes
- Best before date
- Date of manufacture
- List of ingredients
- Allergen labeling
- Labeling of origin
- Net filling quantity
- Nutritional labeling
- Freezing date
- Alcohol content
Codes on packaging are also important parts of food labeling. For example, batch labeling enables fast and reliable traceability of food in the event of necessary recalls. The Food Information Regulation also stipulates the text height for the marking of foodstuffs: Letters such as the small "x" have to be at least 1.2 mm in size, and 0.9 mm for particularly small packaging.
Find suitable printers for food labeling
Fast, robust, hygienic, safe
Printing systems for food labeling have to be suitable for the often harsh, humid or dusty environmental conditions and the high speed of food packaging. They also have to meet the high hygiene requirements of the food and beverage industry. In addition, the materials used, such as ink and labels, have to be solvent-free and safe for consumers.
Which printing system is used and reliably guarantees the required readability of text and codes depends, among other things, on the packaging material.
Possible coding and marking solutions for the food and beverage industry include
- Continuos inkjet printers for marking primary packaging such as coated beverage cartons or yoghurt pots and secondary packaging such as transport cartons
- Laser printers for marking canned goods, glass bottles and PET bottles
- Thermal inkjet printers for coding flexible film packaging
- Labeling systems for printing product and logistics labels
