Guide · Labelling
Product specifications for food — content, duty and structure
As soon as a food moves from one business to the next — supplier to bakery, manufacturer to caterer — the label is no longer enough. That is when you need the product specification: the complete data sheet for a product. This guide explains what goes in it, whether it is mandatory, and how to produce it without spreadsheet chaos.
What is a product specification?
A product specification is a structured data sheet that gathers all the relevant properties of a food in one document — from ingredients through allergens and nutrition values to shelf life, packaging and microbiological figures. It is the central information document in business-to-business trade, usually exchanged as a PDF or a spreadsheet between manufacturer and trading partner.
Unlike the label, the specification is not aimed at consumers but at other businesses: the buyer’s purchasing, quality assurance and product development functions. It is often part of the supply agreement and serves both sides as a binding quality standard.
Is a product specification mandatory?
Short answer: no particular form is prescribed by law — but the flow of information behind it is. Three levels:
- Article 8(8): food business operators “that supply to other food business operators food not intended for the final consumer or to mass caterers shall ensure that those other food business operators are provided with sufficient information to enable them, where appropriate, to meet their obligations under paragraph 2”. The product specification is the usual document by which that duty is met. (Source: Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011.)
- Certification standards: anyone certified to IFS Food, BRCGS or ISO 22000 has to demonstrate systematic specification management — for raw materials and finished products alike. Without current specifications there is no passed audit.
- Traceability and liability: under the General Food Law, Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, every business has to know what is in its products and where it came from. The specification is the evidence — and the safeguard in a complaint or a recall.
In sum: no law prescribes a fixed specification form, but without the information it contains you can neither build a correct label nor pass an audit. In practice it is indispensable.
What belongs in a product specification?
A standard has settled on two blocks: the mandatory particulars that also go on the label, and the B2B additions.
Block 1 — mandatory particulars (as on the label)
- The name of the food (the legally correct name)
- The list of ingredients in descending order of weight, with allergens emphasised
- The nutrition declaration (the big seven: energy, fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, protein, salt) — calculate it
- QUID figures for emphasised ingredients
- The net quantity
- The date of minimum durability or ‘use by’ date and storage conditions
- The name and address of the responsible food business operator
- Where applicable, the country of origin and alcoholic strength (drinks above 1.2 % by volume)
Block 2 — B2B additions
- Additives and E numbers with their functional class (Annex VII)
- Microbiological parameters (counts, limits)
- Chemical and physical values (pH, water activity, moisture, particle size)
- Sensory properties (appearance, smell, taste, texture)
- Packaging and units (material, weight, palletisation)
- Storage and transport conditions (temperature, remaining shelf life on delivery)
- Certifications and status (organic, IFS/BRCGS, halal/kosher, vegan/vegetarian, GMO-free)
Specification, label or data sheet — what is the difference?
| Document | For whom | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Label | Final consumer | The legally required short form |
| Product specification | Business partners (B2B) | The complete data sheet, technical values included |
| (Technical) data sheet | Internal / B2B | Often a synonym, sometimes narrower and more technical |
The label is the extract the consumer sees — the specification is the original, with everything the receiving business needs behind it.
Producing one without spreadsheet chaos
The laborious part is rarely the layout but the correct data: calculating nutrition values from the recipe, deriving allergens cleanly from the ingredients, declaring additives correctly — and keeping all of it current when an ingredient changes. That is where Foodlex comes in:
- Nutrition values automatically from the recipe on the basis of the German Federal Food Key (BLS 4.0) — the finished big-seven table for the specification.
- Allergens derived from the ingredients (all 14 of Annex II), emphasised in the list of ingredients.
- Your own ingredients and supplier data can be added — so your suppliers’ specifications feed straight into your finished product.
- Consistent and current: change an ingredient and the values flow through every recipe and document.
This article is general information and does not replace legal advice. What counts is the wording of the regulation as it applies at the time (Article 8(8) of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011). The English text of the Regulation is quoted from the consolidated version of 1 January 2018 on EUR-Lex.