Food Labels

Gilly Print have been supplying food producers with self adhesive labels for the last 25 Years.

Custom printed labels cut to any shape and size, on rolls or sheets. In house printing set up also available.

Contact us for best advice and price

Contact us or telephone us 01590 718002 For best advice and price.

Clear Food Labelling

We know that our labels & stickers need to be designed and printed in way that is helpful to consumers and to comply with the relevant food labelling legislation. New food labelling legislation will apply from 13th December 2014, see below for more details.

Contact us for best advice and price

Food Labels and stickers, with that selling edge

 

 

Gilly Print can design as well as print your custom made labels and stickers. If you would like to find out more or enquire about in house printing please contact us.

Materials & Adhesives

We offer a full range of materials including vinyl labels, paper labels, thermal paper labels, thermal transfer labels, polyester labels, self cling plastic stickers, tamper evident labels, block out labels, Polypropylene & fluorescent labels along with permanent, *BS5609,non-mark peelable and freezer adhesive.

* BS5609 refers to the specification for printed pressure-sensitive, adhesive-coated labels for marine use, including requirements for label base material.

Contact us for best advice and price

 

Changes to food labelling will be applied from 13th December 2014.

The new Food Information Regulation (FIR) is set to provide consumers with easily accessible information about the food and drink that they buy and help them make informed, safe choices. They will help provide allergen information in a clearer and more consistent way. For example, any of the 14 allergens that are on the regulatory list will be emphasised on the label of a pre-packaged food if they are used as ingredients.More details on the regulations are below.

(For further information please contact Gilly Print on 01590 718002.)

Over printable labels

For customers using their own printers Gilly Print has a selection of label materials that are suitable for over printing with your own information. Gilly Print can supply you with plain or preprinted labels which you can over print using a Direct Thermal Printer, Thermal Printer or Laser Printer.

Peel and Reveal Labels

These are great for labels which need to include a lot of information. The label appears to be a normal but can be opened to reveal 1 or 2 extra layers of pages of information. The labels are suitable for machine application and can be produced on a variety of materials to suit customer requirements. They can also be used through In-Line Printers & Applicators as well as Standard Label Printers.

Blockout Labels

This is a tried and trusted method of re-labelling products where incorrect information or country specific information has to be re-labelled and covered over (blocked out). They are ideal when importing a product from abroad and labelling it with the correct UK standards label. This are also very useful when re-labelling products where mistakes may have been made in house as it enables re-labelling of products without the need to recall them.

Higher Resolution Printing – For finer and smaller text

Most standard label printers are 203DPI resolution which is fine for labels where text size or space isn’t at a premium. Using a 305DPI printer will give you much sharper, finer and smaller text than you are able to get out of a 203DPI printer so if space is an issue consider upgrading your printer to a model with sharper printing.

Latest Barcode Software

Most companies are guilty of running old legacy software and systems in some areas of their business, if label software is one of them you should seriously consider new software. The latest version of Bar-Tender is more than ready for FIR, you will find many other key features in this award winning and market leading software.

 EU Suppliers Number Labels

These labels are still used by many food suppliers as        an easy way to identify food items that are being            transported.

 

Key areas of the FIR regulation include:

• Country of origin/Place of provenance: origin requirements have been tightened and also extended to fresh and frozen meat from pigs, sheep, goats and poultry. The Commission has introduced implementing rules which will require information on the place of rearing and place of slaughter for these meats. These rules are expected to apply from April 2015. The Commission will also undertake reviews on widening the scope to include other foods, including meat products and dairy products.
• Nutrition labelling: ‘back of pack’ information will become mandatory on the majority of prepacked foods, and it will be possible to voluntarily repeat on ‘front of pack’ information on nutrients of importance to public health. It will also be possible to provide voluntary nutrition information in the ‘front of pack’ format on food sold loose (e.g. on deli counters) and in catering establishments. In addition, there remains scope for businesses to use Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) based on reference intakes specified in the regulations and (subject to certain conditions) additional forms of expression and presentation.
• Alcoholic drinks will be exempted from mandatory nutrition labelling, but it will be possible for manufacturers to provide energy information on a voluntary basis.
• Date marking: depending on the type of food, consumers will continue to see ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates on pre-packed foods. The latter will be more tightly linked to food safety. Where appropriate i.e. for meat and fish, there will also be a date of first freezing shown on food labels.
• A minimum font size for the mandatory information on most food labels will aid clarity.
• Drinks with high caffeine content will have to be additionally labelled as not recommended for children or pregnant and breastfeeding women, with the actual caffeine content quoted.
• The types of vegetable oil used in food, such as palm oil, must be stated.
• Allergen information will be extended to non-prepacked foods and catering situations with flexibility in how businesses provide this to consumers.
• Added water in certain meat and fishery products will need to be shown in the name of the food if it makes up more than 5% of the final product.

New regulations on food Allergen labelling

The new piece of European legislation is called the Food Information for Consumers Regulation (EU FIC) came into force on 13 December 2014 and will change the way allergen information appears on labels and on food that is pre-packed, sold loose or served when you are eating outside of the home. The EU FIC will bring general and nutrition labelling together into a single regulation to simplify and consolidate existing labelling legislation.

With ALLERGEN regulations hitting the news again there are simple ways you can label your food products clearly.

 

What are the changes?

The changes are:

• Any of the 14 allergens that are on the regulatory list will be emphasised on the label, if they are used as ingredients in a pre-packaged food. Businesses can choose what method they want to use to emphasise these allergens, for example, by listing them in bold, italics, highlighted or underlined, to help identify them.
• Information about allergenic ingredients will be located in a single place, i.e. the ingredients list on pre-packed food. This means that the voluntary use of the current types of allergy boxes (such as: ‘Contains nuts’) that provide a short cut to allergen information also given in the ingredients list, will no longer be allowed.
• Currently, loose foods (that can be bought without packaging) for example in supermarkets, delis, cafes and restaurants; don’t have to provide information you need about food allergens. However, from 13 December 2014, information on any of the 14 allergens used as ingredients will need to be provided for these foods.

The 14 Allergens are:

• milk
• Eggs
• fish
• crustaceans (for example crab, lobster, crayfish, shrimp, prawn)
• molluscs (for example mussels, oysters, squid)
• peanuts
• tree nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, brazils, pistachios, macadamia nuts or Queensland nuts)
• sesame seeds
• cereals containing gluten (wheat (such as spelt, Khorasan wheat/Kamut), rye, barley, oats, or their hybridised strains).
• soya
• celery and celeriac
• mustard
• lupin
• sulphur dioxide and sulphites (at concentration of more than ten parts per million)

REGULATIONS ON FOOD LABELLING

• Name – Must also inform the customer the nature of the product. It may also be necessary to attach a description to the product name. However, there are certain generic names which must be only used for their conventional uses, for example: Muesli, Coffee, prawns.
• Ingredients – All ingredients of the food must be stated under the heading ‘Ingredients’ and must be stated in descending order of weight when present at more than 2% in the product. Ingredients making up less than two percent may be declared in any order at the end of the declaration. Moreover, certain ingredients such as preservatives must be identified as such by the label ‘Preservatives’, a specific name, e.g. “sodium nitrite”, and the corresponding European registration number colloquially known as an “E number“, e.g. “E250“. When ingredients are themselves made of a number of sub-ingredients (i.e. a mayonnaise), these must be declared as well in the ingredient declaration. If ingredients or additives contain one of the listed 14 EU allergens, these must be explicitly named in the list. For example: ‘Preservative: E220 (Sulphites)’.
• Nutritional Information– Although it is not a legal requirement to declare Nutritional information on the product, if the manufacturer makes claims that the product is ‘Low in Sugar’, it must be supported with nutritional information (normally in tabulated form). However, as a rule it is recommended to declare nutritional information as consumers more than ever are investigating this information before making a purchase. Moreover, there are two European nutritional labelling standards which must be adhered to if nutritional information is shown.
• Medicinal or Nutritional Claims – Medicinal and Nutritional claims are tightly regulated, some are only allowed under certain conditions while others are not authorized at all. For example, presenting claims the food product can treat, prevent or cure diseases or other ‘adverse conditions’ are prohibited. While claiming the food is reduced in fat or rich in vitamins require the food to meet compulsory standards and grades, in addition, the terms must be used in a form specified in regulations.
• Date Tagging – There are two types of date tagging:
  • Use by Date – ‘Use by date‘ must be followed by a day or/and month which the product must be consumed by. To be employed on perishable foods that usually would be kept cold, for example, fish, meat, dairy products and ‘ready to eat’ salads.
  • Best Before Date – ‘Best before date is used as an indicator of when the product will begin to degrade from optimal quality; this includes when the food becomes stale, begins to taste ‘off’ or decays, rots or goes mouldy. There are also regulations on which type of best before date must be applied:
    • Best before + Day for foods with a shelf life of up to 3 months
      
    • Best before end + Month for foods with more than a 3 month shelf life
    • Best before end + Year for food with more than an 18 month shelf life.
• Storage Conditions – If there are any particular storage conditions for the product to maintain its shelf life, these must be pointed out. However, as a rule it is recommended to always describe the necessary storage conditions for a food product.
• Business Name and Address – In addition to the business name and address, it is necessary to indicate the manufacturer or packager, if independent to the main business and the seller established within theEuropean Union.
• Place of Origin – The food is required to specify its place of origin, especially if the name or trademark is misleading – such as if the product is called ‘English Brie Cheese’ when it is produced in France.
• Instruction for Use – This is only necessary if it is not obvious how to use or prepare the product, in which case the consumer’s own initiative must be used.
• Presentation – The label must be legible and easy to read, also it must be written in English, however, the manufacturer may also include other languages.
• Batch identifier, such as Lot Mark or Batch Code – It must be possible to identify individual batches with a lot mark or batch code – the code must be prefixed with the letter ‘L’ if it can not be distinguish from other codes, however, the date mark can be used as a lot mark.^{[citation needed]} Manufacturers must bear in mind that the smaller the size of a batch, the smaller financial consequences in the case of a product recall.
• Sectioning – All of the following must be in the same field of vision:
  • Product name
  • Date mark
  • Estimated net weight or quantity
  • Alcohol strength (if applicable).
• Standard specification – Indicate the level of the standard compliances which the product are manufactured and packaging are completed against, and the specification limits if the standard is not publicly available, especially for those of
  • Microbial limits
  • Heavy metal limits
  • The limits of pesticide residuals
  • The limits of preservatives, artificial flavouring and colouring etc.
• Food additives – with a best practice, the items should be presented by their approved names (i.e. domestically), functional classes, and numbers of International Numbering System

Contact us or telephone us 01590 718002 For best advice and price.