Product labels: what has to fit and in what order

For prepacked food sold in the EU, what goes on the label is set by Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, down to how small the text is allowed to be. The order is mostly up to you, with a few fixed rules: three items share the same field of vision, ingredients go in descending order of weight, and allergens stand out in the ingredient list. Everything else is design.

This article is about food: honey, jams, sauces, coffee, packaged baked goods. Cosmetics and other products have their own rules.

What the label must include

The regulation has applied since December 13, 2014, and the nutrition declaration has been mandatory since December 13, 2016. The mandatory items are listed in Article 9. In short:

1. the name of the food;
2. the list of ingredients;
3. ingredients that can cause allergies or intolerances;
4. the quantity of certain ingredients, when they're highlighted (for example in the name or in a photo);
5. the net quantity;
6. the best-before or use-by date;
7. any special storage or usage conditions;
8. the name or business name and address of the food business operator;
9. the country of origin or place of provenance, where the regulation requires it;
10. instructions for use, if the product couldn't be used properly without them;
11. the alcohol strength, for drinks above 1.2% alcohol by volume;
12. the nutrition declaration.

The information has to be in a language easily understood by shoppers in the country where the product is sold, and each country can require one or more of its official languages. Plan the text in the local language from the start. If the label carries several languages, the space gets split, and that changes everything below.

How small you're allowed to go

This is where many good-looking labels fall apart. The regulation doesn't measure text in points. It measures the x-height, the height of lowercase letters without ascenders or descenders. The minimum is 1.2 mm. If the largest surface of the package is under 80 cm², the minimum drops to 0.9 mm.

In practice, two typefaces set at the same point size can have different x-heights. An elegant font with short lowercase letters needs a bigger size to clear the bar. That's why, before printing, we output the label at 1:1 scale and measure the "x" with a ruler or loupe instead of trusting the number in the software.

What goes together, and in what order

A few layout rules come straight from the regulation:

• The name, the net quantity and, for drinks, the alcohol strength must appear in the same field of vision, so you can read them without turning the product.
• Ingredients are listed in descending order of weight, as used in making the food.
• Allergens appear in the ingredient list and are emphasized typographically so they stand out from the rest. The European Commission gives font, style or background color as examples; most often that means bold.
• The nutrition declaration covers energy, fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, protein and salt. It goes in a table with the numbers aligned if there's room, and in a single line if there isn't.
• For highly perishable foods, the best-before date is replaced by a use-by date.

The layout we recommend

The regulation tells you what to include, not how it should look. We split the label into two zones:

The front, for the shelf: product name, brand and net quantity in the same field of vision, plus the photo or illustration. This is where someone decides whether to pick the jar up.

The back, for someone who already has it in hand: ingredients with allergens highlighted, the nutrition table, the date, storage conditions, company name and address. We keep the same order across the whole range, so a customer buying a second product finds things right away.

Mistakes we catch before printing

• Labels on round jars. If the label wraps around, check that the name and the net quantity don't end up on opposite sides.
• Thin white text on a colored background. At 1.2 mm, weak contrast and hairline fonts fill in on press.
• Finishes. Gloss film or glitter over small text makes it hard to read under store lighting.
• Margins. Keep mandatory text away from the trim line, inside the safe zone. We explained why in our article on bleed and margins.

One important point: we design the label and check what's visible, but the legal content (ingredients, values, statements) is confirmed by the producer, who is responsible for it. For self-adhesive labels and their formats, see our stickers and labels page.