Bread and bakery products

Overview

This is a guide to the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Food Standards Code) labelling and compositional standards for bread and bakery products sold in, or imported into, Australia and New Zealand.

Chapter 1 of the Food Standards Code contains the labelling provisions and information that must be provided for foods, and the requirements for how this information must be presented.

Chapter 2, Standard 2.1.1 Cereals and cereal products includes additional labelling and information requirements specific to bread and bread products.

Labelling requirements for food businesses

Labelling requirements vary depending on how the product is sold. For example, products sold:

• packaged on supermarket shelves must meet the full labelling requirements
• directly from the premises from which they were made have fewer labelling requirements. This is because the consumer can get information about the product at the time of purchase.

Retail bakeries

A retail bakery is where food is sold directly from the place of manufacture to a consumer.

The following labelling information is required:

• the presence of allergens must be displayed in connection with the display of the food or provided to the purchaser on request
• a nutrition information panel where a nutrition claim is made (e.g. ‘low fat’, ‘high fibre’, ‘gluten free’), on display or provided to the purchaser on request (verbally or in writing)
• if offal is in meat pies or any other food, the purchaser must be informed at time of purchase (e.g. steak and kidney pie).
• percentage labelling of characterising ingredients may apply (e.g. percentage of wholemeal flour in wholemeal bread).

Ingredient suppliers

Food that you receive from ingredient suppliers must include the following information either on the food label or on accompanying documentation:

• name or description of the food that indicates the true nature of the food
• lot identification
• name and business address of the supplier.

When requested, the ingredient supplier is also required to provide (in writing) any other information related to the ingredient that you need for compliance with the compositional and labelling requirements of the Food Standards Code.

Wholesale bakeries

A wholesale bakery is where food is sold packaged, or sold for catering purposes e.g. supermarkets, service stations, convenience stores, schools, restaurants, caterers or self-catering institutions where food is offered for immediate consumption.

Packaged food that is sold from premises at a different location to where it was made requires full labelling.

Mandatory warnings, advisory statements and declarations

Food that contains unpasteurised egg products or unpasteurised milk products, must include an advisory statement that the product has not been pasteurised.

Allergens must be declared both in the statement of ingredients, and in a distinctly separate summary statement next to the statement of ingredients.

In the ingredients list, the allergen declaration must be printed in bold font that provides a distinct contrast with other text, in a size of type no less than used for other text. It must be listed separately for each ingredient, e.g. kamut (wheat), maltodextrin (wheat). It must also be listed as a separate word if it is part of the name of the ingredient, e.g. milk powder but not buttermilk.

The summary statement must be printed in bold font in the same typeface and size as the declarations in the statement of ingredients. It must commence with the word ‘Contains’ then list the required name of each food to be declared (e.g. ‘Contains milk’).

using a required name, or mandatory specified term for the allergen source (Standard 1.1.2—Definitions used throughout the Food Standards Code).

• Tree nuts must be declared separately in the ingredient list and summary statement using the required name– ‘almond’, ‘Brazil nut’, ‘cashew’, ‘hazelnut’, ‘macadamia’, ‘pecan’, ‘pine nut’, ‘pistachio’, ‘walnut’.
• ‘Wheat’ must be used as the required name in the ingredient list and summary statement when wheat (or its hybrids) is present. If gluten is present, then ‘gluten’ must also be included in the summary statement.
• ‘Rye’, ‘barley’ and ‘oats’ (if they contain gluten) must be used as the required names in the ingredient list when these cereals (or their hybrids) are present. However, they must be declared as ‘gluten’ in the summary statement.
• Soybean must be declared in the ingredient list as either ‘soy’, ‘soya’ or ‘soybean’ and in the summary statement as ‘soy’.
• The required names for other allergens for use in the ingredient list and summary statement, are ‘sulphites’ (when added in concentrations of 10 mg/kg or more), ‘milk’, ‘egg’, ‘sesame’, ‘lupin’ and ‘peanut’.

The term ‘processing aid’ (or its plural) must be listed in the ingredient list in association with the allergen/s it contains or is derived from, e.g. processing aids (wheat, egg).

Note: There are other foods that require mandatory advisory statements or declarations that for industry relevance, have not been included here. For more information, refer to Standard 1.2.3 Information requirements – warning statements, advisory statements and declarations.

Food that contains any of the ingredients listed above, must have the required information displayed in connection with the display of the food, or provided to the purchaser on request, either verbally or in writing.

Date marking 

If the food that you manufacture is packaged and sold from another premises, one of the labelling requirements is to include a date mark for the product.

Bakery products that require a date mark, must be labelled with either a ‘Use By’ or ‘Best Before’ date, depending on the nature of the product:

• a ‘Use By’ date must be used where the food should be consumed before a certain date because of health or safety reasons.
• a ‘Best Before’ date must be used where the food should be consumed before a certain date to maintain the quality of the food and prevent food spoilage.

The label on a package of bread that has a shelf life of less than 7 days, may use either a:

• ‘Best Before’ date
• ‘Baked On’ date (using the words ‘Baked On’ or ‘Bkd On’)
• ‘Baked For’ date (using the words ‘Baked For’ or ‘Bkd For’)

Products with a shelf life shorter than 3 months require the day and month. Products with greater than 3 months’ shelf life require the month and year.

A food cannot be legally sold past its ‘Use By’ date.

For more information refer to Standard 1.2.5 Information requirements – date marking of food for sale.

Characterising ingredients and components

Characterising ingredients and components must be declared on a food label (or in connection with food on display, or verbally, as permitted by the Food Standards Code) as a percentage of the food. See Standard 1.2.10 Characterising ingredients and components of food.

Percentage labelling helps consumers make informed choices about food by letting them compare how much characterising ingredient or component is present in similar products. The proportion of a characterising ingredient or component is required for all food products.  Exceptions include the following:

• unpackaged food
• food made and/or packaged in the presence of the purchaser, e.g. sandwiches, filled rolls, etc.
• food for catering purposes, e.g. food for use in restaurants, canteens
• delivered packaged and ready for immediate consumption at the express order of the purchaser, e.g. home delivery
• sold at a fundraising event, e.g. cake stalls, school fetes, etc.
• in small packages, i.e. a package with a surface area of less than 100cm².

Food additives 

Food additives must not be present in food, unless expressly permitted by the Food Standards Code.

Permitted additives for bread and bakery products, and the maximum permitted level, are provided in the table in Schedule 15 Substances that may be used as food additives, section S15—5. See parts:

• 6. Cereals and cereal products
• 7. Breads and bakery products.

Mandatory fortification 

Iodised salt must be used for making bread where salt would otherwise be used, except for organic bread.

Wheat flour (except organic wheat flour), including wholemeal, must contain:

• no less than 2mg/kg and no more than 3mg/kg of folic acid, and
• no less than 6.4mg/kg of thiamin.

The mandatory fortification requirements outlined above do not apply to pizza bases, breadcrumbs, pastries, cakes (including brioche, panettone and stollen), biscuits or crackers.

Further information can be found in Standard 2.1.1 Cereal and cereal products.

Composition and labelling of meat pies

Further information can be found in Standard 2.2.1 - Meat and meat products.