Basics · Labelling
Food labelling requirements in Australia — the complete list
Most guides give you seven or eight things that must be on a label. The Food Standards Code lists fourteen general ones, and names the provision for each. Here is that list in full, in the Code’s own order, plus the two big rules that are not in the Code and catch people out.
The list, from section 1.2.1—8
Section 1.2.1—8 is headed “Information required on food that is required to bear a label”. Its general requirements, in order:
| What | Where | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Name of the food | 1.2.2—2 | What it is, in words a buyer understands. |
| Lot identification | 1.2.2—3 | So a batch can be traced and recalled. |
| Name and address of the supplier | 1.2.2—4 | In Australia or New Zealand — a foreign address alone is not enough. |
| Advisory statements, warning statements and declarations | 1.2.3—2, 1.2.3—3, 1.2.3—4 | This is where the allergen declarations sit. |
| Statement of ingredients | 1.2.4—2 | In descending order of ingoing weight. |
| Date marking | 1.2.5—3 | ‘Best before’, or ‘Use by’ where the food must not be eaten after it. |
| Storage conditions and directions for use | 1.2.6—2 | Where they are needed for health or safety. |
| Information for nutrition, health and related claims | 1.2.7—26(4) | Triggered by what you choose to say about the food. |
| Nutrition information | Standard 1.2.8 | The nutrition information panel. |
| Characterising ingredients and components | 1.2.10—3 | Percentage labelling — the Australian counterpart of the European QUID. |
| Vitamin D in breakfast cereals | 1.3.2—7 | Where it has been used as a nutritive substance. |
| Genetically modified food | 1.5.2—4 | |
| Irradiated food | 1.5.3—9 | |
| Cell-cultured food | 1.5.4—5, 1.5.4—6 | Added as the category became a reality. |
After those come the additional requirements for particular foods — the fat proportion in minced meat, formed or joined meat and fish, the process declaration for edible oils, the composition of a juice blend, and more. They apply only to the products named, but when they apply they are not optional.
Two rules that are not in the Code
This is where an otherwise careful label goes wrong, because both look like food law and neither is:
- Country of origin — the Country of Origin Food Labelling Information Standard 2016, made under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and enforced by the ACCC.
- The Health Star Rating — voluntary, run by the Australian and New Zealand governments outside the Code, with a guide rather than a standard behind it.
Does the food need a label at all?
Not everything does. The Code distinguishes food that must bear a label from food for which the same information must merely be made available — unpackaged food sold at retail, food made and packaged on the premises where it is sold, and food sold in a hamper among others. The information does not disappear; it moves off the pack and onto a sign, a docket or a spoken answer.
Allergen declarations are the ones that survive every exemption. If a declarable food is present, the buyer gets told, packaged or not.
Where the work actually is
Of the fourteen items, eleven are things you know and simply have to write down. Three are calculated:
- The nutrition information panel — seven values, per serving and per 100 g, rounded to three significant figures.
- Percentage labelling — the proportion of the characterising ingredient, by ingoing weight.
- Allergen declarations — which means reading every compound ingredient, additive and processing aid, not just the recipe.
All three come out of the same data: the recipe, with a composition record behind each ingredient. Keep that one thing right and the label follows; keep it in a spreadsheet and every recipe change is three manual recalculations.
Frequently asked questions
What must be on a food label in Australia?
Section 1.2.1—8 lists it: the name of the food, lot identification, the supplier’s name and address, advisory and warning statements and allergen declarations, the statement of ingredients, date marking, storage conditions and directions for use, information for any nutrition or health claim, the nutrition information panel, percentage labelling, and statements for genetically modified, irradiated and cell-cultured food.
Does country of origin labelling come under the Food Standards Code?
No. It sits in a separate instrument under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, enforced by the ACCC.
This article is general information and does not replace legal advice. Quoted from the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, Standard 1.2.1 (F2015L00386, Compilation 13, in force 9 June 2026), on the Federal Register of Legislation.