If you've never made a food product label before, the process is intimidating. Do you hire someone to help you? Do you use a program? Food labelling is one of those challenges that is best solved by asking around. Don't have anyone to ask? Luckily we do. In our interviews with food & beverage makers, we came across a label solution used almost universally: Recipal. Tons of food and beverage companies, from the littlest guys to the $5m-in-revenue brands, are utilizing this solution.
What do they do?
This article from Recipal outlines your two options. You can utilize a food lab to analyze your product and create a label (which entails sending samples, and waiting potentially months for the results). Or you can use Recipal, do some sneaky math and gather your ingredients yourself, and end up with a custom label as quick as you can put it together.
The lab option is great if you don't have the time to gather all the information about your ingredients, but do have the time to wait around for a label to come back. For most entrepreneurs we talked to, this wasn't the case. They utilized Recipal to get instant results (and the process of gathering ingredient information from your suppliers is probably good to undergo).
Who says what goes on a label?
Good question. If you're a CPG product, most likely the FDA sets the guidelines on what your product labels can look like and say. The FDA product labelling guide is 132 pages, so you probably have better things to do. However, the first few pages are an important read: they provide many of the most common Q&A's. If you're not yet selling across state lines, your local or state Department of Agriculture will be able to provide more personalized service (and may have locally-specific requirements for your product). Make sure to bring a label to your first DoA inspection, so that you can get real-time feedback and make sure you're above board.
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If you've never made a food product label before, the process is intimidating. Do you hire someone to help you? Do you use a program? Food labelling is one of those challenges that is best solved by asking around. Don't have anyone to ask? Luckily we do. In our interviews with food & beverage makers, we came across a label solution used almost universally: Recipal. Tons of food and beverage companies, from the littlest guys to the $5m-in-revenue brands, are utilizing this solution.
What do they do?
This article from Recipal outlines your two options. You can utilize a food lab to analyze your product and create a label (which entails sending samples, and waiting potentially months for the results). Or you can use Recipal, do some sneaky math and gather your ingredients yourself, and end up with a custom label as quick as you can put it together.
The lab option is great if you don't have the time to gather all the information about your ingredients, but do have the time to wait around for a label to come back. For most entrepreneurs we talked to, this wasn't the case. They utilized Recipal to get instant results (and the process of gathering ingredient information from your suppliers is probably good to undergo).
Who says what goes on a label?
Good question. If you're a CPG product, most likely the FDA sets the guidelines on what your product labels can look like and say. The FDA product labelling guide is 132 pages, so you probably have better things to do. However, the first few pages are an important read: they provide many of the most common Q&A's. If you're not yet selling across state lines, your local or state Department of Agriculture will be able to provide more personalized service (and may have locally-specific requirements for your product). Make sure to bring a label to your first DoA inspection, so that you can get real-time feedback and make sure you're above board.
Want more F&B maker content, delivered to your inbox? Check out our newsletter!
If you've never made a food product label before, the process is intimidating. Do you hire someone to help you? Do you use a program? Food labelling is one of those challenges that is best solved by asking around. Don't have anyone to ask? Luckily we do. In our interviews with food & beverage makers, we came across a label solution used almost universally: Recipal. Tons of food and beverage companies, from the littlest guys to the $5m-in-revenue brands, are utilizing this solution.
What do they do?
This article from Recipal outlines your two options. You can utilize a food lab to analyze your product and create a label (which entails sending samples, and waiting potentially months for the results). Or you can use Recipal, do some sneaky math and gather your ingredients yourself, and end up with a custom label as quick as you can put it together.
The lab option is great if you don't have the time to gather all the information about your ingredients, but do have the time to wait around for a label to come back. For most entrepreneurs we talked to, this wasn't the case. They utilized Recipal to get instant results (and the process of gathering ingredient information from your suppliers is probably good to undergo).
Who says what goes on a label?
Good question. If you're a CPG product, most likely the FDA sets the guidelines on what your product labels can look like and say. The FDA product labelling guide is 132 pages, so you probably have better things to do. However, the first few pages are an important read: they provide many of the most common Q&A's. If you're not yet selling across state lines, your local or state Department of Agriculture will be able to provide more personalized service (and may have locally-specific requirements for your product). Make sure to bring a label to your first DoA inspection, so that you can get real-time feedback and make sure you're above board.
Want more F&B maker content, delivered to your inbox? Check out our newsletter!
