You need to ensure that all of your food product labels feature everything needed to meet the strict FDA requirements.

Certain elements must be on every food label. You will learn what they are in this post. We will also show you how extended content labels can help you maximize the marketing power of your product labels. You can contact a label printing company if you need a labelling solution for your business.

Why Should You Improve Your Label Design?

More and more people are getting increasingly health conscious. Consumers are actively seeking out more natural products with fewer ingredients. Some are seeking organic materials, Eco-friendly solutions, and more.

Your food packaging labels are no different. There’s been a lot of research that shows that the majority of consumers tend to read labels before purchasing. They end up looking at things like; ingredients, freshness, organic, GMOs, sugar, fat, sodium content, and more.

If they aren’t able to find what they are looking for with your label or they don’t know how to read the label, it will likely lead to them switching their purchasing decision. There was a similar study where researchers learned that people were generally more willing to purchase a product if it was labelled as being healthy.

Unfortunately, adding this type of marketing term to a label can be increasingly difficult. There is only so much you can do with the messaging on your product packaging. You need to meet regulations and if you are deceiving consumers, you can get in trouble. That’s why it pays to be transparent with your labelling. The messages on your packing can increase your sales drastically.

Here are some of the most important elements to include on your food product labels:

The Food and Drug Administration has specific guidelines they have set for what should be included on food labels. You need to adhere to them exactly. If you are marketing any CBD or Cannabis products, you would need to adhere to the specific requirements for labelling these products.

Here are the five elements that you need to add to every food label according to the Food and Drug Administration:

1. Statement Of Identity

You need to have a clearly defined product. Your label needs to make your product identifiable so the consumer knows what they are buying. For instance, if you are selling sauce, you could have “Italian Sauce. Made with 33 different spices!”

A label also needs to have the intended use of the product on it. For example, if you are selling honey, you could put, “add it to your tea or even drizzle it on pancakes for breakfast!”

While a lot of people will know how to use the product you are selling, giving examples of how to use it can expand your target audience and help you win over prospective customers.

2. Net Weight

You want to ensure that you are adding the net weight of your food and its contents. This is the weight of the stuff inside without the packaging weight included. Your net quantity statement will need to be prominently placed on the front of the packaging towards the bottom 30% of your label. You need it to be prominently displayed on the outermost portion of your packaging.

3. Manufacturer Information

You need to include everything regarding who manufactures your product. The address of the manufacturer or distributor needs to be on it. You also need to add a qualifying phrase to it that accurately describes your company’s relationship with the manufacturer.

4. Nutritional Facts

This is generally what the customers will be looking at first when they start to weigh the decision of whether or not they want to buy your product. You need to include the nutrition facts and ingredients on the same panel. This makes it easier for consumers to scan your product to see what’s in it. You need the nutritional panel to include; serving sizes, nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and more. All of the information in this section needs to be fully legible and easy to read. It’s best to use good contrasting text and background colours to avoid having it misinterpreted. Essentially, you want to print dark text on a white background or vice versa. You also want the front to be large enough for everyone to read.

5. Ingredients

The ingredients in your product can make or break your sales. This can be one of the more challenging things to add because everything that went into making your product needs to be included. They also need to be listed in the most accurate order based on how much of it can be found in your product. You also want to add any disclaimers as it relates to whether or not your product contains or was manufactured in a place with allergens. For instance, if you manufacture your product in a facility that uses peanuts, you need to disclose it on your label.