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Senior Consumer Staples Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence Jennifer Bartashus once quipped that plant-based alternatives “are here to stay.” With the growing number of plant-based product consumers expected to account for 7.7% of the market share by 2030, Bartashus’s words appear to have merit. If you’ve ventured into this industry, have you considered integrating food label makers into your business?
The Role of Nutrition Label Makers in Plant-Based Product Development
To understand the importance of nutrition label makers in product development, one must look at why food products need nutrient-information labels in the first place. Nutrition labels are the guiding light that leads consumers to safe products. Buyers would hardly reach for a product with a non-detailed food label. It’s this little document that tells them:
- What’s in the product
- How much of each ingredient is in the product
- Any health risks associated with the product ingredients
- The recommended amount of product to consume in a serving
- The firm responsible for the product—whether manufacturer, packer, or distributor
The government, too, is always watching to ensure you meet the labeling standards it sets. But it doesn’t leave you to grapple in the dark in this area. Instead, the FDA provides comprehensive guidelines on how to label different plant-based foods. Here’s an example of what their guidance looks like:
Let’s say your product is an alternative to a non-plant-based product and you mention this in your label. The guidelines require you to include a voluntary statement explaining how the two products compare. However, if there is no mention of the non-plant-based product on your label, you don’t have to include the voluntary nutrient statement.
Differentiating between the various labeling standards seems impossible, especially for anyone new to the industry. But food label makers make choosing the correct label easy. The food label maker software is programmed to sort through your ingredients and generate a nutrition statement based on the compounds it finds.
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Benefits of Using Food Label Makers for Your Plant-Based Products
A quality food label maker is the lifeline of any plant-based food business, big or small. Some of the benefits that come with using a nutrition label maker are:
1. Easy of Use
Nutrition label makers produce food labels quickly and in a straightforward manner. Simply click through the menu, fill in the details requested in the various fields, and wait for your label to generate.
2. Ease of Customization
The best food label makers are customizable. They are designed for different markets and are made in compliance with the regulatory frameworks for each market. Just choose the label format for your market and customize it.
3. Regulation Compliance
Food label makers are made in compliance with regulatory standards. So you never have to worry whether the labels you’re sticking on your products comply with government regulations.
Navigating Plant-Based Food Labeling Challenges
Like with most things, producers of plant-based foods face numerous challenges when choosing and designing nutrition labels for their products. Here’s how to navigate the difficulties you may encounter when creating labels for your food products.
1. Fitting All the Necessary Information on the Label
Labels are usually small. You’ll need to get creative when designing the label. Choose a layout that allows you to squeeze in all the compulsory details in that limited space.
2. Keeping the Nutrition Information Legible
Ensure the font is legible so consumers can read the label without straining. To enhance the clarity of the printed words, maintain high contrast between the background and print colors. Your choice of colors may ultimately depend on the brand colors, but a classic white background and black ink will ensure higher readability.
3. Cost
Designing and printing labels can be costly, especially when you do it from scratch. The cost is even higher if you print your label in two or more languages to cater to a diverse clientele. Label makers ease some of the cost burden since they let you choose your preferred label design from several templates.
4. Language
Some of your target customers may be non-English speakers. So you’ll need to include a language they understand when printing the label. The more such groups you have, the more languages you have to add. But it’s a necessary evil if you are to do business in a multicultural market.
5. Counterfeits
You work hard to build your spice mix. Then one morning you wake up and there’s a flood of fakes that look just like your product. It’s disheartening. Although you may not prevent counterfeiting, you can make it harder for fakers to counterfeit your product. Use things like:
- Product authentication—serial numbers, watermarks, holograms, etc, make your products harder to replicate.
- Special labeling and packaging—add security features like QR codes and tamper-evident seals.
- Tell your customers what to look out for—mention the specific color shade you use on your packaging, for example, to help clients distinguish between the authentic and counterfeits.
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Conclusion
Nutrition label makers are the answer for any business that wants a reliable way to furnish customers with accurate nutritional information about its products. These food label makers comply with FDA labeling guidelines and will ensure you meet all government nutrition labeling regulations as you seek to satisfy your customers’ food needs.