Food production, labelling and marketing compliance can be an onerous and time consuming process but is one of the most important for food companies. Product recalls, labelling re-runs or worse, legal action can not only hurt the bottom line but will cause long term brand damage.
As the leading consultants in food regulatory affairs and compliance, FoodLegal works with food manufacturers and importers to ensure their product development, labelling and marketing progresses smoothly.
FoodLegal expertise and the FoodLegal InHouseTM compliance subscription service enables our clients’ products to go from inception or importation to the consumer’s basket as quickly and cost effectively as possible.
Food companies large and small, despite their best efforts, can make mistakes in compliance. Here are the top five most common mistakes in compliance according to FoodLegal’s managing principal Joe Lederman:
1. Health Claims: You can’t claim that. Unsubstantiated health claims are not allowed from 18 January 2016, and some health claims you can make today may not be permissible.
2. Undeclared allergens: The problem with nuts. Last Easter there was a large number of product recalls because companies neglected to declare their product ‘may contain nuts’. The possibility of contamination must be declared on the label.
3. No address on the label: So simple. You would be surprised how many times this happens. All labels must contain an Australian address.
4. Non-permitted food ingredients: Just because it’s eaten overseas doesn’t mean it’s necessarily allowed in Australia. Certain products have prescribed permitted ingredients but percentage calculations methods differ from country to country. The USA and Australia do it very differently!
5. Can I mention that on the label? How much banana do you need? You can’t picture a banana on the label and call it ‘Banana Yoghurt’ if it only contains .05% banana.
