Label legalities

10 August 2016



Label legalities


Label legalities

Once used simply to display basic product information, labelling has become far more sophisticated over time, and consumers are increasingly relying on them in the making of their purchasing decisions. With this power comes responsibility – and the need for tighter legislation to ensure that what consumers see is truly what they get. Packaging Today investigates.

With brands regularly expected to make changes to include more information on their labels – such as the inclusion of allergen information and origin information for fresh meat, plus requirements to improve legibility – the space available on labels for design and brand elements is significantly impacted.

Such changes to label regulations pose issues for brands, their supply chain partners and label converters. Mark Tibbetts, president at the Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute (TLMI), says, "As with the other printed packaging sectors, regulations and compliance pressures are having the most impact in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical categories.

“Some of the regulatory issues that we predict will impact label design include GMO labelling compliance, ePedigree and track-and-trace regulations, and heightening nutritional labelling standards for certain food and beverage packaging categories. These expectations mean that a label has to carry increased amounts of information, as it is often the sole informational medium on a container."

This puts pressure on manufacturers, and there may come a point when compliance and competitive advantages clash so that the production of a product under these circumstances does not make business sense. Until that point is reached, consumer safety is paramount, and the innovation that has been brought through compliance measures has been of great benefit to brands.

Little impact

The severity of the changes brought about in the labelling industry by existing and future legislation is debatable, according to John Bambery, chairman of BPIF Labels: "Besides label converters in the food production sector that have had to consider legislation such as low-migration inks – which have now been taken on board by suppliers to the label-printing sector – regulations have had little impact on businesses in the rest of the industry. Many feel that we have enough legislation to deliver high levels of consumer protection, but this doesn't seem to stop the steady creep of new regulations."

Bambery says that BPIF Labels, as a trade body, gives information to its members so that they can make suitable decisions when looking for service providers and suppliers. Supermarkets, for example, demand sustainability and expect their labelling partners to adhere to current legislation – such as being BRC accredited, and having the ISO 14001 and PS 9000 quality assurance standards.

The European Commission recently published the revised set of circular economy regulations, which, if adopted by the UK in the current form, will completely transform the country’s packaging waste directive, Bambery says.

"This will add significant cost to companies,” he warns. “BPIF labels will be lobbying strongly on behalf of the label industry."

 The future of regulations

The food sector will always have some of the most complex labelling regulations, which means that companies need to think creatively and practically about staying relevant and within the law. The legislation has to balance manufacturer compliance with best practices, ensuring that food is of the highest quality while making the consumers’ lives easier by giving them the information to make the right decisions based on their needs.

One example of this is the SmartLabel initiative, supported by the Grocery Manufacturers Association. With the scanning of a barcode, SmartLabel takes consumers to a website offering detailed information about the scanned product.

Pamela G Bailey, president and CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, says, "People want information about the products they buy, use and consume. SmartLabel puts it at their fingertips. SmartLabel will change how people shop."

For businesses within the labelling industry, legislation and regulation are facts of life. The pressure – from brand partners and consumers alike – to include more information on labels might hamper creativity at first, but it also drives innovation. Legislation needs to be well thought through, and developed with the cooperation of the label converters that ultimately have to deliver the label to their customers. However, it is often enacted in isolation, with low levels of consultation across the supply chain.

More regulation and legislation will always be on its way to the labelling industry, and each label converters must continue rise to their challenges.

 

The FINAT perspective

Packaging Today speaks with Jules LeJeune, director of FINAT to learn more about what to expect in labels.

What pressure points do companies currently face in the labelling industry?

Jules LeJeune: FINAT’s RADAR report found that the global labelling industry is seeing a steady decline in average run sizes. We asked respondents to break down their run sizes per end-use vertical for conventional jobs as well as digital jobs (for companies that had digital presses). Of all the printed packaging sectors, flexible packaging has been more impacted by run-size contractions than any other. European brand-owners in the food industry are reporting that job sizes have dropped from millions of units to the hundreds of thousands over the past five years, and are decreasing further. As this continues, opportunities open up for label converters with narrow web presses.

 

What future label regulations most concern businesses in the packaging label sector?

In Germany, the third draft of the Mineral Oil Ordinance was released in July 2014, with the government reviewing comments received during a consultation. The planned revision is part of a wider review of the German Consumer Goods Ordinance (Bedarfsgegenständeverordnung), which also includes the Printing Ink Ordinance (Druckfarbenverordnung). The latter will contain a list of substances that may be used in the manufacture of printing inks for food-contact materials.

Work on the seventh draft of this ordinance is in progress, but a final version is now on the horizon. It will contain a positive list for permitted components, such as solvents and additives, with migration limits. The ordinance is to be applied to direct and in-direct food-contact applications alike – unlike the similar Swiss Ordinance on materials and articles. The German ordinance on printing inks and varnishes is expected to have a substantial effect at EU level, setting a precedent for change or, possibly, becoming the de-facto standard.

At a European level, further clarification is needed on this year’s changes concerning the EU 10/2011 regulation on plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food. The industry is also looking forward to the technical guidelines for compliance testing that are currently being finalised by the Joint Research Centre, while anticipating new guidance by the European Chemicals Agency following the ruling by the European Court of Justice regarding the 0.1% threshold for the notification of SVHCs in articles.

 

What current trends can you identify in the label industry?

Among the sectors attracting European converter attention, FINAT’s research reports, is the sleeve sector, with 40% of surveyed companies already active in sleeve printing. The report found that 25% of participating label printers have successfully penetrated the flexible-packaging market, with another 15% indicating they are very interested in this.

The European stand-up-pouch market is forecast to grow by 5.5–6.5% a year over the next five years – more than twice the projected volume growth in the region’s flexible packaging sector as a whole. One in every five surveyed converters is already active in the printing of in-mould labels, and the European in-mould market is projected to grow an estimated 2–3% a year over the next five years.

These finding are based on a backdrop of overall good health in the European label market. In the first quarter of 2015, European demand for self-adhesive label materials saw a growth of 7.1% from the previous year. Over the past five quarters, the year-on-year growth in demand in the label industry has averaged 5.8% for paper-roll materials and 8.3% for filmic label material.

Demand for self-adhesive label materials has also seen significant growth, reaching 6.4 billion square meters (roll and sheet materials together) in 30 European countries in 2014 – an increase of 5.7% from the previous year.

 

 



Privacy Policy
We have updated our privacy policy. In the latest update it explains what cookies are and how we use them on our site. To learn more about cookies and their benefits, please view our privacy policy. Please be aware that parts of this site will not function correctly if you disable cookies. By continuing to use this site, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with our privacy policy unless you have disabled them.