General requirements for labelling
5.—(1) No person shall import, advertise, manufacture, sell, consign or deliver any prepacked food if the package of prepacked food does not bear a label containing all the particulars required by these Regulations.
(2) Every package of prepacked food shall, unless otherwise provided in these Regulations, bear a label, marked on or securely attached in a prominent and conspicuous position to the package, containing such particulars, statements, information and words in English as are required by the Act and these Regulations.
(3) The particulars, statements, information and words referred to in paragraph (2) shall appear conspicuously and in a prominent position on the label and shall be clearly legible.
(4) The particulars referred to in paragraph (3) shall include —
(a)
the common name, or a description (in the case where a suitable common name is not available) sufficient to indicate the true nature of the food;
(b)
the appropriate designation of each ingredient in the case of food consisting of two or more ingredients and unless the quantity or proportion of each ingredient is specified, the ingredients shall be specified in descending order of the proportions by weight in which they are present.
For the purpose of this sub-paragraph —
(i)
“appropriate designation” means a name or description, being a specific and not a generic name or description, which shall indicate to a prospective purchaser the true nature of the ingredient, constituent or product to which it is applied except as provided in the First Schedule;
(ii)
it shall not be necessary to state that the food contains water; and
(iii)
where a food contains an ingredient which is made from two or more constituents, the appropriate designations of those constituents shall be so specified and it shall not be necessary to specify the appropriate designation of that ingredient;
(c)
either one of the following statements in specification of ingredients in the case of a food which contains the synthetic colouring, tartrazine:
(i)
tartrazine;
(ii)
colour (102);
(iii)
colour (FD Yellow #5) or other equivalent terms;
(d)
the net quantity of the food in the wrapper or container expressed in the following manner:
(i)
for liquid foods, by volume;
(ii)
for solid foods, by weight;
(iii)
for semi-solid or viscous foods, either by weight or volume; and
(iv)
for a food packed in a liquid medium, by net weight of the food together with the liquid medium, and by drained weight of the food.
For the purpose of this sub-paragraph —
(i)
liquid medium means water, aqueous solutions of sugar and salt, fruit and vegetable juices in canned fruits and vegetables only, or vinegar, either singly or in combination;
(ii)
in the case of weight measure, suitable words like “net” or “drained weight” shall be used to describe the manner of measure; and
(iii)
the declaration of net contents of frozen food that has been glazed shall be exclusive of the glaze, where glazing refers to the application of a protective layer of ice formed at the surface of a frozen product by spraying it with, or dipping it into, clean water;
[S 195/2011 wef 15/04/2011]
(e)
the name and address of the manufacturer, packer or local vendor in the case of a food of local origin; and the name and address of the local importer, distributor or agent and the name of the country of origin of the food in the case of an imported food.
For the purpose of this sub-paragraph —
(i)
a telegraphic or code address or an address at a post office shall not be sufficient;
(ii)
the name appearing on the label shall be presumed to be the name of the manufacturer, packer, local vendor or importer of the food unless proven otherwise. If more than one name appears, the names shall be presumed to be that of the manufacturer, packer, local vendor or importer of the ?food? unless proven otherwise;
(ea)
the following foods and ingredients that are known to cause hypersensitivity:
(i)
cereals containing gluten, i.e. wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt or their hybridised strains and their products;
(ii)
crustacea and crustacean products;
(iii)
eggs and egg products;
(iv)
fish and fish products;
(v)
peanuts, soybeans and their products;
(vi)
milk and milk products (including lactose);
(vii)
tree nuts and nut products; and
(viii)
sulphites in concentrations of 10 mg/kg or more;
[S 195/2011 wef 15/04/2011]
(f)
the following words or any other words to the same effect in the case of any food containing aspartame:
“PHENYLKETONURICS: CONTAINS
“PHENYLALANINE.”; and
(g)
such other particulars as are required by these Regulations to be given in the case of any particular food.
(5) Nothing in paragraph (2) shall prohibit the additional description in any language of the contents of any package or of any particulars desired except that such addition is not contrary to or in modification of any statement required by these Regulations to be printed on the label.
(6) The particulars stated in paragraph (4)(a), (b), (c) and (d) shall be in printed letters not less than 1.5 mm in height.
(7) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in these Regulations, words required to be printed in a prescribed size may be printed in reduced size clearly legible when a package containing a ?food for sale is so small as to prevent the use of wording of the prescribed size.