Food Labelling Guide

The Australia and New Zealand Food Standards Code defines food labelling rules designed to provide the consumer with information needed to make informed and healthy choices in the food they buy.

To assist small business prepare food labels the Department has published a Guide to the Labelling of packaged food for retail sale (May 2007 - 16th edition).

Updates to the labelling guide since the last edition

Minor editing changes.

Unpackaged food and packaged food exempt from labelling

As indicated in the Guide, unpackaged and some packaged foods are exempted from the general labelling requirements. Where the consumer should be aware of certain warning or advisory information, the Code requires the food business to make this information available. The FSANZ guideline, Information Requirements for Foods Exempt from Bearing a Label identifies these requirements and how the information can be provided.

Other food labelling information

A copy of the new joint Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code is available on the Food Standards Australia New Zealand web site for reference. FSANZ also has available a number of User Guides and Fact Sheets that provide a more detailed interpretation of the Food Code and examples. These can be found under the Assistance for Industry heading on the FSANZ web site.

The labelling of meat and meat products

A supplement to the Department’s Guide to the labelling of food for retail sale is available for the labelling of meat and meat products.

Food additives

Food additives play an important part in our food supply ensuring that our food is safe and meets the needs of consumers. Information on food additive numbers and what food additives are used for can be found on our food additives web page.

Alcoholic Beverages

The Food Code requires alcoholic beverages show the number of standard drinks on the package label. The FSANZ guide Standard drinks labelling requirements for alcoholic beverages (PDF 187k) is available to assist with this calculation.