All pet food products supplied to the market must be labelled in the official language and comply with European Union and national requirements. Compliance must be ensured both when introducing a new product to the market and when importing or exporting a product to new markets.
If you plan to supply products to different EU countries, you will need to have the labelling texts translated into the national language of each country. Correct labelling of pet food helps to ensure compliance with all relevant requirements and avoid risks such as product recall, the need to re-label packaging, damage to reputation, etc.
Although most product categories are harmonized at the EU level, in practice, the labelling of pet food with the same composition may vary depending on the country to which it is supplied. Considering regulatory standards and best practices in target markets, we recommend the following:
- Apply relevant legislation.
- Formulate labelling instructions and claims.
- Avoid challenges inherent in the labelling process.
If needed, we also help clients with different stages of pet food labelling:
- We assess whether all product components are permitted for use in target markets.
- We assess the legal compliance of packaging layouts with EU and national requirements.
- We inform you about potential risks and non-compliance.
- We help to ensure that the product name complies with its legal name.
- We prepare regulatory label translations into various EU languages in accordance with applicable legal and linguistic requirements.
- We check product labelling texts.
- We unify label texts adapted to different markets.
- We participate in the creation of packaging layouts and label designs.
Countries where we provide this service
Pet food labelling is closely linked to national requirements. We perform regulatory translations into official languages and ensure legal compliance of products in the Baltic countries, Poland, and other countries (subject to separate agreement). Compliance is ensured separately for each market where the product is distributed.
Marketing pet food: what to look out for?
- The labelling of pet food is regulated by EU animal feed legislation. It does not fall within the scope of the rules applicable to food for human consumption, so some of the statements used in the legislation are more relevant to farmers than to pet owners.
- By law, the label must include a list of ingredients, additives, supplier details, nutritional analysis, and feeding guidelines. It is also very important that the symbols and images on the packaging do not mislead the consumer, are clear, and correspond to the product claims.
Pet food must be labelled in the official language of each EU country to which it is supplied.
