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This information can be used to develop food safety and quality programs that meet the requirements of modern Regulatory, Customer and Industry Standards:
When considering the development, documentation, and implementation of Labeling Standards within food safety and quality management systems, the following information should be considered to ensure effective outcomes:
Packaging design and materials should provide adequate protection for products to minimize contamination, prevent damage, and accommodate appropriate Labeling. Labeling Standards procedures should be formatted to ensure that packaging conforms to relevant specifications which may be based upon regulatory or industry guidelines, or for customer requirements. Packaging materials or procedures mustn’t impact the safety or quality of the foods being packaged. Unused packaging should be handled and stored in a manner that does not compromise food safety or quality.
Depending on the type of food your customers are buying and the intended usage of the food, it may or may not require Labeling. There is generally no requirement for items produced for consumption within a premise to be labeled with details of ingredients and usage details. Labeling requirements for specific products or product groups are defined with the applicable food standards legislation.
General Labeling requirements for products for retail sale include:
Labeling aims to provide consumers with information that will ensure they can make an informed decision regarding their choice of food and to ensure its safety at the time of consumption providing it has been handled and used according to the nominated requirements.
It is important to ensure that Labeling review activities are scheduled, conducted, and recorded on an ongoing basis to ensure labels are accurate and meet customer and regulatory requirements. The frequency for Labeling review activities is often nominated to meet customer requirements, though annually is a common minimum frequency.
Foods that have a relatively long shelf life such as canned products, cereals, and ambient storage items are generally labeled with a Best Before date. It is not generally illegal to sell these foods beyond the nominated best before date, but the product may suffer organoleptic or physical degradation due to its age.
Potentially hazardous foods with a short shelf life in which pathogenic micro-organisms can grow are generally labeled with a Use By date. It is generally a regulatory offense to have on display or sell food after the Use By date has expired, even if it appears to still be fit to eat. The Use By date generally expires at midnight on the date given.
In instances where sub-contracted packaging or Labeling activities are conducted, it is of utmost importance that the scope and purpose of interactions of such sub-contractors are documented, and agreed upon, both internally and by relevant customers.
It is generally not considered appropriate for food businesses to procure the services of a sub-contracted packaging or Labeling supplier without the prior consent of the customer for whom they manufacture foodstuffs. Such customer approvals often include verification of satisfactory standards, including the confirmation of food-grade packaging status.
In instances where Identity Preserved products are handled by sub-contracted packaging or Labeling suppliers, it is important to ensure that the integrity and “genuine” status of such foods are maintained. This is often facilitated through the establishment of assessment and testing routines between food businesses that may enter into sub-contracted packaging or Labeling arrangements to ensure the status of Identity Preserved products is not compromised.
Regardless of whether product Labeling and coding are pre-printed or applied as part of the packaging process, all forms of product identification and traceability must remain legible and indelible at all times.
Legibility checks are conducted to ensure that the print within the product Labeling and coding can be read and understood by the anticipated consumer group. It is also important to consider that regulatory guidelines often specify requirements for defining the legibility of product Labeling and coding.
Indelibility checks are conducted to ensure that the product Labeling and coding are permanent and will not be removed through unwanted means. When considering the indelibility characteristics of product Labeling and coding, it is important to consider circumstances through which such Labeling or coding may become illegible. For example, if the exterior of a frozen product becomes frosted during transport, the excess moisture on the product exterior could potentially cause the product label or coding to become illegible. Environmental conditions, such as high humidity within the packaging and Labeling area of the food business can also potentially impact the integrity of the applied Labeling.
Product assessments should be inclusive of Labeling and coding reviews to ensure ongoing compliance. Scheduled product Labeling and coding verification activities should also confirm the capability to continuously apply legible and indelible Labeling and coding. Where product coding is applied within the food business, verification activities are commonly inclusive of a review of the inks being used, the ink application systems and printers, and the surfaces upon which the ink is applied. Other product coding methods, including laser etching and imprinting, may also be verified through a scheduled activity.
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Labeling Standards Development requirements in relation to their items.
Document: A document provides guidance and/or direction for performing work, making decisions, or rendering judgments that affect the safety or quality of the products or services that customers receive.
Documented policies, procedures, work instructions, and schedules form the basis of any food safety and quality management system. The following documentation formats may be considered to ensure ongoing compliance with specified requirements for Labeling Standards:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Labeling Standards Documentation requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Labeling Standards Templates section of haccp.com for examples of Labeling Standards documentation, record, and resource formats commonly applied within food safety and quality systems.
Implementation: Implementation is the application of documented food safety and quality system elements into the actual business operation.
The implementation of Labeling Standards within any food business requires genuine commitment from senior management, staff, and visitors to ensure the nominated goals of implementation are achievable on an ongoing basis. It is a step that requires significant planning and consideration of general and specific food business circumstances to ensure the outcomes of Labeling Standards do not negatively impact the safety and quality of the food items dispatched from the business.
Implementation of Labeling Standards must include a clear definition of responsibilities and authorities for all levels of participation by senior management, staff, and visitors to the site.
When implementing Labeling Standards within the food safety and quality system, you may wish to consider the following requirements before completion:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Labeling Standards Implementation requirements in relation to their items.
Monitoring: Monitoring is the act of reviewing and confirming measurable parameters of a defined process or product status.
Monitoring requirements within food industry sectors are generally identified against limits of acceptability defined within HACCP plans, implementation procedures, and work instructions. Monitoring usually includes some element of record-keeping, which may be maintained manually or through digital systems. It is important to consider that advancements in technology have spawned many systems and processes which are self-monitored and or self-adjusted when variances are identified. Regardless of the system used; The goal of any monitoring activity is to provide sufficient evidence that any limit of acceptability has been met.
Traditional Labeling Standards monitoring requirements include manual recording and the application of corrective actions when the results of monitoring are found to be outside acceptable limits. Corrective Actions should also generally be strongly linked to the monitoring process where applied to ensure full traceability of the applied actions.
Common monitoring activities and record formats may apply to Labeling Standards:
You may wish to visit the Labeling Standards Templates section of haccp.com for examples of Labeling Standards documentation, record, and resource formats commonly applied within food safety and quality systems.
Corrective Action: Corrective action is mandatory action to be taken when a deviation to the Quality System occurs, particularly to a Critical Control Point.
Preventative Action: At any step in the process where a hazard has been identified, preventative action must be put into place to prevent re-occurrence.
Corrective Action and Preventative Action are implemented to ensure that any identified non-conformance issues are documented, investigated, and rectified within appropriate time frames.
Corrective action is any action applied to regain control over a product, process, policy, or procedure that has been identified as being non-conforming outside nominated limits of acceptability.
Preventative action is any action applied to prevent any identified non-conformance from reoccurring.
The outcomes of corrective and preventative actions should result in regained process control after effective application. Specified corrective actions are commonly linked to the HACCP Plans and the food business certification process.
Below are Corrective Action and Preventative Action examples which may be associated with Labeling Standards related non-conformance:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Labeling Standards Corrective Action requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Corrective Action and Preventative Action section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
Verification: The act of reviewing, inspecting, testing, checking, auditing, or otherwise establishing and documenting whether items, processes, services, or documents conform to specified requirements.
Verification is the detailed review of all food safety and quality system elements to confirm that they are effectively developed, documented, implemented, monitored, and reviewed. All food safety and quality system elements, including documented policies, procedures, training, HACCP plans, and their operational applications must be verified on an ongoing scheduled basis. The verification process commonly includes a defined schedule for which verification activities are required, how often they are conducted, who is responsible, and detailed documented procedures for each nominated verification activity.
The general goal of an established verification process is to ensure any systemic non-conformance issues are identified and rectified within an appropriate time frame. When non-conformance issues are identified through the verification process, Corrective Actions and Preventative Actions should be implemented to ensure they do not impact the effectiveness of the food safety and quality system.
The following examples of verification activities may apply to Labeling Standards:
A review of all Labeling requirements should be documented and implemented against the requirements of applicable legislative and industry standards, and internal and external specifications. This exercise aims to ensure compliance with the required Labeling standards and guidelines. Labeling reviews should be initiated:
All of the Labeling requirements for the region or country in which the food products will be sold must be considered when reviewing Labeling.
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Labeling Standards Verification requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Verification Activities section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
Validation: The process of gathering evidence to provide a scientific basis for the documented act of demonstrating that a procedure, process, and activity will consistently lead to the expected results. It often includes the qualification of systems and equipment.
Validation is the provision of evidence to support the limits of control or acceptability for food safety or quality parameters nominated within systemic elements. Limits of control or acceptability are commonly included within documented food safety and quality systems elements such as procedures, HACCP plans, and specifications.
Common sources of validation include regulatory and legislative standards, finished product specifications and customer requirements, industry codes of practice and guidelines, verified and validated research, historical product, and process control outcomes, and analytical testing.
The general goal of an established validation process is to ensure any systemic non-conformance issues are identified and rectified within an appropriate time frame. When non-conformance issues are identified through the verification process, Corrective Actions and Preventative Actions should be implemented to ensure they do not impact the effectiveness of the food safety and quality system.
Validation activities are commonly defined within the verification schedules and procedures of established food safety and quality management systems.
The following examples may apply to validation of the limits of control or acceptability for Labeling Standards:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Labeling Standards Validation requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Validation Activities section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
Skills and Knowledge: Skills and knowledge are attributes of human interactions commonly linked to competency within any specified job-related task.
Training and competency requirements for Labeling Standards must be ongoing, including regularly scheduled reviews to ensure the effectiveness of training and competency outcomes.
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Labeling Standards should have knowledge including:
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Labeling Standards should have skills including:
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Labeling Standards should have access to resources including:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Labeling Standards Training, Competency, and Resources requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Training, Competency, and Resources section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
haccp.com was created to support food businesses and food industry professionals in achieving and maintaining the stringent requirements of food industry compliance.