Food labelling & food packaging

Companies put a lot of work into researching and producing food labelling and food packaging of everything from biscuits to fruit or meat. It is often the key between the product and the buyer.

The food packaging will need to be practical as a form of storage, while at the same time selling the product to a consumer. If food was sold by itself it would no doubt be considerably cheaper. As a result, packaging is big business and is estimated at the moment as a £55 billion per year industry.

Food labelling of products offers information, legal or otherwise, that the consumer needs in order to help understand the food, it's ingredients and what it can be used for. The current Traffic Light system is in the news due to certain large supermarkets doing their own thing.

Despite this, Food labelling has legal rules. These stringent guidelines will determine what is written and will prevent companies from describing products as something they are not. It is, however, important to realise that although some information may not essentially be false, language can be manipulated leaving things open to interpretation.

Although there are many essential areas to pay attention to, if you are responsible for the production, it is imperative that care is taken in outlining the date, cooking and storage instructions. It's equally as important for the consumer as these are the factors which can lead to, or prevent bacterial growth and food poisoning.

The ‘best before' and ‘use by' dates are the indicators of when to consume the product by, whereas the ‘display until' is purely for the shops use.

(taken from : here)