Lecture 1

Food Labeling – An Introduction

Dr Muhammad Nadeem

FT-518
Food Labeling
Course Learning Objectives
The main objectives of this course include:
◼ Understand the basic food labelling requirements,
essential for all types of food products.

◼ Understand the importance of labelling allergens

correctly.

◼ Knowledge of what can and cannot be printed on food

packaging in relation to nutritional and health claims.
Course Learning Outcomes

◼ Interpret relevant food and drink labelling legislation

and know when to seek advice.

◼ Understand how to implement current food and drink

labelling legislation in order to generate compliant
labels.

◼ Recognize compliant and non-compliant labels.

Food Labeling
◼ A food label, the information presented on food product, is
one of the most important and direct means of communicating
information to the consumer.

◼ The internationally accepted definition of a food label is

any tag, brand, mark, pictorial or other descriptive matter,
written, printed, stenciled, marked, embossed or impressed
on, or attached to, a container of food or food product.

◼ This information, which includes items such as ingredients,

quality and nutritional value, can accompany the food or be
displayed near the food to promote its sale.
Food Labeling (Contd.)
Food Labeling – Purpose

◼ Food Labeling is an effective tool to protect consumer health

in terms of food safety and nutrition.

◼ Food labels convey information about the product’s

identity and contents, and on how to handle, prepare and
consume it safely.

◼ With the increase in global trade and a shift away from the
traditional face-to-face food producer and buyer relationship,
there is a greater need to create food labels that are clear and
can be trusted.
Food Labeling – Why Regulate It?

◼ To prevent fraud, deception and misleading statements

and to inform the consumer or disclose enough
information about the product for the consumer to make
an informed judgment about the product.

◼ Induce consumer to purchase the product.

◼ The food labeling requirements designed to protect

economic expectations cover both prohibitive and
affirmative regulation.
Food Labeling Terminologies

▪ Label: “Any display of written, printed, or graphic matter

upon the immediate container of any article”.

▪ Labeling: “All labels and other written, printed or graphic

matter upon any article or any of its containers or wrappers
or accompanying such article”.

▪ Raw agricultural commodity: “Means any food in its

raw or natural state, including all fruits that are washed,
colored, or otherwise treated in their unpeeled natural form
prior to marketing”.
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Food Labeling Terminologies

▪ Prohibitive Regulation = The prohibitive

requirements protect against fraud and deception.
Prevention of false and misleading statements is at
the historical foundation of labeling regulation.

▪ Affirmative Regulation = The affirmative

requirements mandate that food manufacturers
provide information on their labels that they
otherwise might not include.
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Food Labeling Terminologies

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Food Labeling Terminologies

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Food Labeling Terminologies

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Some Important Terminologies
▪ Quality: An attribute of a commodity that influences its acceptability
to a group of buyers, and, therefore, the price they are willing to pay for
it; does not mean whether something is good, better, or best, bur rather
is synonymous with "desired characteristic.".
➢ Food quality is the result of three major components - appearance
(size, shape, colour); flavour (taste on the tongue, odor in the nose);
texture (how product feels in the hand, in the mouth as it is chewed,
or how it pours).

▪ Quality Assurance: All the planned and systematic activities

implemented within the quality system which controls each stage of
food production from raw material harvest to final consumption, and
demonstrated as needed, to provide adequate confidence that an entity
will fulfill requirements for quality.
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Some Important Terminologies

▪ Quality standard: Commonly agreed-upon yardsticks for measuring

differences in product quality.

▪ Ready-to-eat (RTE) food: Food that is in a form that is edible

without washing, cooking or additional preparation by the food
establishment or consumer and that is reasonably expected to be
consumed in that form.
➢ Ready-to-eat food includes potentially hazardous food that has been
cooked; raw, washed, cut fruits and vegetables; whole, raw, fruits and
vegetables that are presented for consumption without the need for
further washing, such as at a buffet; and other food presented for
consumption for which further washing, or cooking is not required
and from which rinds, peels, husks or shells have been removed.
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Some Important Terminologies
▪ Risk: Probability of an adverse event occurring.

▪ Risk analysis: Process consisting of three components: risk

assessment, risk management and risk communication.

▪ Risk assessment: Scientifically based process consisting of the

following steps: (i) hazard identification, (ii) hazard
characterization, (iii) exposure assessment and (iv) risk
characterization.
➢It provides an evaluation of the likelihood and severity of
adverse effects on public health arising, for example, from the
presence in foodstuffs of additives, contaminants, residues,
toxins or disease-causing organisms. 16
 SCEJ 77th Meeting, Tokyo (Khalid et
Mar. 15, 2012 al. ) 17
Some Important Terminologies
▪ Risk communication: Interactive exchange of
information and opinions concerning risk among risk
assessors, risk managers, consumers and other interested
parties.

▪ Risk management: Process of weighing policy

alternatives in the light of the results of risk assessment
and, if required, selecting and implementing appropriate
control options, including regulatory measures.

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Some Important Terminologies
▪ Risk profile: Description of the food safety problem and its
context.
➢Risk profiling is the process of describing a food safety
problem and its context, in order to identify those
elements of the hazard or risk relevant to various risk
management decisions.

➢The risk profile would include identifying aspects of

hazards relevant to prioritizing and setting the risk
assessment policy and aspects of the risk relevant to the
choice of safety standards and management options.
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