Standard 1.2.4 - Information requirements (ingredient labelling), Food Safety Glossary

The Food Standards Code standard requiring the name of the food and a statement of ingredients on packaged food. Standard 1.2.4 sets out the information that must be provided about the identity and ingredients of a food. It requires that the name or a description of the food is given, and that a statement of ingredients is included, generally listing ingredients in descending order of their proportion by weight at the time the food is made. The standard also covers how compound ingredients, additives and certain components are declared, and it works alongside the allergen declaration requirements so that consumers can identify what a product contains. Together these rules let a shopper read a label and understand both what the food is and what has gone into it. A manufacturer must build an accurate ingredient list for each packaged product, ordered by weight, and keep it up to date whenever a recipe changes. Additives are named by their function and either their name or an approved code number, and any of the declared allergens present must be clearly identified. Getting the ingredient statement right is closely tied to allergen safety: an incomplete or out-of-date list is a common cause of undeclared-allergen recalls. Businesses that reformulate products need a process to review labels so the ingredient and allergen information keeps matching what is actually in the pack. An Adelaide muesli producer lists every ingredient in its packs in descending order by weight and flags the tree nuts and gluten present, updating the label immediately when it swaps one dried fruit for another.