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The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department today (May 27) released a set of "Trade Guidelines on Preparation of Legible Food Label" aimed at assisting the food trade to provide legible information on food labels.
"Food labels provide information about food products. A legible food label with essential information of the product appropriately marked will help consumers make informed choices. When a food label is not properly designed, consumers may have difficulty reading the label for information they require," a spokesman for the CFS said.
"It is therefore important that traders, when designing the food labels of their products, note the legal requirements on legibility and showing the required information clearly," he said.
"This set of guidelines provides principles and examples of legible food labels for traders' reference," the spokesman added.
At present, the Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) Regulations (Cap 132 W) requires the following information, unless otherwise exempted, to be legibly marked on the food labels of all prepackaged food:
(i) Name of the food;
(ii) List of ingredients (including ingredients, allergenic substances and additives);
(iii) Indication of durability;
(iv) Special conditions for storage or instructions for use;
(v) Count, weight or volume;
(vi) Name and address of manufacturer or packer; and
(vii) Nutrition label.
"A number of factors can affect legibility. The obvious ones include font size, contrast between the background and the text, and spacing between lines. In principle, the font size used in a food label should be as large as possible to facilitate easy reading by consumers," the spokesman said.
The guidelines provide specific recommendations on the key elements for a reasonably legible food label including suitable font size, good contrast and sufficient spacing.
Apart from these elements, the spokesman said, the clarity of words may also be enhanced by other relevant factors such as use of an appropriate font type, suitable printing technology and a non-reflective printing surface.
Before finalising the guidelines, the CFS consulted members of the food trade and consumer groups. The guidelines were also discussed and endorsed by the Legislative Council Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene on May 8.
The spokesman urged traders to observe the elements of legible food labels and make reference to the guidelines when preparing food labels for their prepackaged products in order to comply with the legibility requirements of the food labelling regulation.
The guidelines have been uploaded to CFS' website, www.cfs.gov.hk.
Ends/Sunday, May 27, 2012
Issued at HKT 15:01
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