Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011
For EU food brands working out what the food information rules expect on a label, from allergens to nutrition. This page covers what you need to know and ways to avoid running into issues.
What we've seen reported
The Food Information to Consumers (FIC) Regulation, Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, sets the EU's general food labeling rules: the mandatory particulars on prepacked food, how allergens stand out, minimum font size and what online sellers show before purchase.1
Last updated October 2026 · General information only, not legal advice. Sources.
What the rules cover
These are the requirements the FIC Regulation describes for food labels and online listings, according to its text, and where each one applies.1
| Requirement | Where it applies |
|---|---|
| Mandatory particulars | On prepacked food: the text lists twelve, from the name and ingredients to the net quantity, durability date and the operator's name and address. |
| Allergens in the list of ingredients | Emphasized through a typeset that sets them apart, such as font, style or background color. |
| Minimum font size | On the package or label: an x-height of 1.2 mm, or 0.9 mm where the largest surface is under 80 cm². |
| Food sold online or at a distance | Mandatory information available before the purchase, except the durability date, and all of it at delivery. |
| Nutrition declaration | On most prepacked food: the energy value and amounts of fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, protein and salt. |
| Language of mandatory information | In a language easily understood by consumers in the member states where the food is marketed. |
| Responsibility for the information | Food business operators: the operator under whose name the food is marketed, or the importer into the EU. |
Where it goes wrong
One approved set of product information ends up in many channels, markets and languages. Along the way it gets shortened, translated and reworded, and some versions end up without the warnings or details these rules require.
Oat and hazelnut granola: allergens emphasized, nutrition per 100 g
How Arbitr helps
Manually review everything? Or do what modern teams do and use AI to check that what you publish matches what you approved.
FAQ
Wherever the food is sold. The FIC Regulation describes mandatory information on the package or label and, for distance selling, on the material supporting the sale before purchase and again at delivery,1 which for most food brands means:
Keep the approved ingredients list as structured data with the allergens marked, rather than as formatted text that gets retyped. Bold, capitals and background color are easy to lose when a list moves into a retailer template or a translation tool, and that typeset is what the text describes for allergens.1 Our packaging and labels page shows how teams track this.
Check the listing carries everything the pack does except the best-before or use-by date, which the text allows to follow at delivery,1 and that the ingredients and allergens match the current recipe. Listings built from old product data are where we usually find a recipe change that never arrived.
How it applies to a specific listing is a question for your legal adviser. Where that listing appears across your markets and languages is a question Arbitr answers.
Regulatory and technical teams usually own the label, but the same particulars are published by packaging, e-commerce, marketing and translation teams, and by retailers working from your data. Each needs the approved version for every market and language. Other labeling rules are on our product labeling hub; for food prepacked for direct sale in England, see Natasha's Law.
It replaced it. According to its text, Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 repealed Directive 2000/13/EC, the earlier general food labeling directive, along with several other acts, as of December 13, 2014.1 For marking rules on non-food goods in Great Britain, see UKCA marking.
Fourteen, according to its Annex II: cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk, nuts, celery, mustard, sesame seeds, sulfur dioxide and sulfites, lupin and molluscs.1
Arbitr checks your content against the rules, claims and terms your team has approved, and reports where something doesn't match, by channel, market and language. It reports matches against your rules, not legal verdicts. What to do with each one stays with your team.
