Percentage (Characterising Ingredient) Labelling Explained

Percentage labelling, also called Quantity of Ingredients Declaration, requires you to show how much of a characterising ingredient a food contains. If an ingredient is named or emphasised on the label — like the beef in a beef pie or the strawberries in strawberry yoghurt — you must declare its proportion, usually as a percentage of the food. It stops labels from promising more than the product delivers. Key takeaways: A characterising ingredient is one named in the food's name, emphasised on the label, or that a consumer would normally associate with the food — and its proportion must be declared.. The declaration is usually a single percentage of the ingredient as a proportion of the final food, shown near the food name or in the ingredient list.. Percentages are generally calculated from the amount of ingredient used at the time of preparation, not the amount in the finished product after cooking.. Some foods are exempt, and small changes in the wording or images on your pack can trigger a declaration you did not expect.. Requirements sit under the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code; check the current Code and consider advice for borderline cases.. What a characterising ingredient actually is A characterising ingredient (or characterising component) is one that gives a food its identity in the eyes of the consumer. The Food Standards Code captures three practical situations. The first is when the ingredient is named in the name of the food — think the chicken in a chicken pie or the apple in apple juice. The second is when the ingredient is emphasised on the label through words or pictures, such as a burst of "made with real butter" or a photograph of raspberries. The third is when the ingredient is one a consumer would ordinarily associate with that food, even if it is not shouted about. When any of these apply, the label must state the proportion of that ingredient. This is often called Quantity of Ingredients Declaration, or QUID for short. The aim is honesty: if the front of the pack leans on strawberries to sell the product, the shopper deserves to know whether the food is largely strawberry or barely contains any. The reverse case also exists. Where an ingredient is named specifically because it is present in a small amount — for example a flavouring that defines the product but is used sparingly — the Code allows the declaration to show that small proportion instead, so the label stays truthful in the other direction. When you must declare a percentage The trigger is emphasis or identity, not the mere presence of an ingredient. Every ingredient already appears in the ingredient list in descending order of weight, so percentage labelling is an extra layer that applies only to ingredients the label draws attention to. If your packaging names, pictures, or otherwise highlights a particular ingredient, that is your signal to declare its proportion. This is where many businesses get caught out. A marketing decision — adding a photo of blueberries, or renaming a product to feature its hero ingredient — can create a legal obligation that did not exist for the plainer version of the same food. Changing artwork or a product name should always prompt a check of whether a new percentage declaration is now required. Compound ingredients add nuance. If a characterising ingredient is itself made up of sub-ingredients, the percentage generally refers to the compound ingredient as it went into the food. Read the current Code carefully for these cases, because how you frame the ingredient on the label affects what you must declare. How to calculate the percentage The general rule is to base the percentage on the amount of the characterising ingredient used when the food was prepared, expressed as a proportion of the total food. In other words, you work from your recipe or formulation — the ingoing quantities — rather than trying to measure what survives in the finished product. This matters most for ingredients that lose or gain weight during processing. Cooking is the classic example. If water evaporates during baking, the ingredients become a larger share of the reduced final weight. The Code's approach of using the quantity at the time of preparation gives a consistent, verifiable basis: you can point to your recipe and your batch records to show how the figure was derived. Start from your formulation: the weight of the characterising ingredient added during preparation.. Express it as a percentage of the total weight of all ingredients used to make the food.. Use the ingoing quantity, not the amount remaining after cooking, evaporation or draining, unless the Code specifies otherwise for that food.. Keep the recipe and batch records that support the figure, so you can justify it if asked.. Round sensibly and consistently — the declaration should reflect the true proportion, not flatter it.. Where and how to present it on the label The percentage can be shown in one of two common places. It can sit next to the name of the food, for example "Beef Pie (Beef 40%)", or it can appear within the statement of ingredients alongside the relevant ingredient, for example "Beef (40%)". Either location is acceptable provided the declaration is clear and unambiguous, and appears close enough to the ingredient it refers to that a shopper can connect the two. The figure is expressed as a percentage and should be legible, in keeping with the general labelling legibility requirements of the Code. It must be truthful and not misleading — a declaration that is technically present but buried, tiny, or placed where it cannot reasonably be linked to the ingredient defeats the purpose. Consistency across a product range helps both compliance and consumer trust. If several of your products carry percentage declarations, present them the same way each time so the information is easy to find and compare from pack to pack. Common exemptions and special cases Percentage labelling does not apply to every food. The Code exempts certain foods from the general labelling requirements, and some foods sold without packaging or made and packaged at the point of sale are treated differently. Where a food is exempt from bearing a full label, the percentage declaration generally does not apply either, though truthful, not-misleading representation still does. There are also foods where declaring a percentage would be meaningless or where specific provisions apply — for instance where an ingredient is present only in a trace amount as a flavouring, or where standardised naming rules already govern the composition. These edge cases are exactly where reading the current Code, rather than relying on a rule of thumb, pays off. Remember that being exempt from percentage labelling does not free you from the wider duty not to mislead. Even without a mandatory percentage, a label that overstates an ingredient through imagery or wording can still breach fair-trading and food law. Fitting percentage labelling into your label checks Percentage labelling is one piece of a compliant label, and it interacts with the others. The ingredient list, allergen declarations under Plain English Allergen Labelling (PEAL) within Standard 1.2.3, the nutrition information, and any claims all need to line up with the percentage you declare. If your front-of-pack emphasis drives a percentage declaration, make sure the same emphasis has not created an allergen or claims obligation you have missed. Build a review point into every artwork change. New photography, a renamed product, a reformulated recipe, or a new marketing line are all moments where a percentage declaration can appear or shift. Catching this at design stage is far cheaper than a relabelling exercise or a corrective action after release. For genuinely borderline products, or where the way you describe an ingredient could be read several ways, consider getting specialist labelling advice. The cost of confirming a declaration up front is small next to the cost and reputational damage of a mislabelling recall. Checklist: Every named, emphasised or expected characterising ingredient has a percentage declaration.. Each percentage is calculated from the ingoing quantity used at the time of preparation.. The figure is expressed as a percentage of the total food and rounded consistently.. The declaration sits next to the food name or the relevant ingredient and is clearly legible.. Recipe and batch records supporting each figure are kept and retrievable.. Artwork, product-name and recipe changes trigger a fresh percentage-labelling check.. The declaration is consistent with the ingredient list, allergen statement, nutrition panel and claims.. Common mistakes: Adding a hero-ingredient photo or renaming a product without realising it now triggers a percentage declaration.. Calculating from the cooked or drained finished product instead of the ingoing quantity used at preparation.. Placing the percentage where a shopper cannot connect it to the ingredient it refers to.. Forgetting to update the declaration after reformulating the recipe or changing artwork.. Assuming an exemption applies without checking the current Code, or assuming exemption removes the duty not to mislead.. Overstating the percentage to make the product look richer than it is, which is both misleading and a recall risk..