Why are pet food back labels important?

The prime purpose of pet food labels is to provide clear, accurate and honest information about a product that may facilitate the buying act of the purchaser. Back of pack information usually contains much of the information required by legislation and may provide more detail about the nutritional content and value of the product. The information below is designed to explain in detail each aspect required on pet food packaging as stipulated by Regulation (EC) No 767/2009 and FEDIAF Code of Good Labelling Practice (2018).

Traceability Information

It is a requirement for the batch number of the product and approval number of the manufacturing establishment to be printed on the pack for traceability purposes. If this information is not given on the label, a statement can be given to indicate where this information can be found, such as ‘For the batch details, the best before date and the manufacturer’s registration number see back of pack or similar.

The manufacturer’s registration number allows the location of where the product was produced to be identified. Regulation (EC) No 183/2005 requires feed business operators to ensure establishments under their control are compliant with regulation and are approved by the competent authority, this is demonstrated by the Manufacturer’s registration number being present on pack, which will have been granted to the establishment by the authorities. The batch details allow the Feed Business Operator to access information on when the product was produced, at what time and when it was packed. This can be particularly useful when investigating any challenges that may occur.

Business Address and Contact Details

Regulation 767/2009, Art. 15 (b) states the address of the feed business operator responsible for the product and how to contact them for further information must be printed on pack. This could be a free telephone number, website or a dedicated consumer careline/email address.

Claims

Further information needed to substantiate claims made on the front of the pack may be found on the back of the pack. Further information on claims substantiation can be found in our earlier article: Pet Food Packaging: Claims and Labelling – What can I say?

References

1. FEDIAF. (2018) FEDIAF Code of Good Labelling Practice for Pet Food. https://fediaf.org/images/FEDIAF_labeling_code_2019_onlineOctober2019.pdf

2. REGULATION (EC) No 767/2009 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 13 July 2009 on the placing on the market and use of feed https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:229:0001:0028:EN:PDF

3. REGULATION (EC) No 183/2005 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 12 January 2005 laying down requirements for feed hygiene https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2005/183/article/10#