Bread and bakery products

This is a guide to the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code) labelling and
compositional standards for bread and bakery products sold in, or imported into, Australia
and New Zealand. Chapter 1 of the Code contains the labelling provisions. Chapter 2,
Standard 2.1.1 Cereals and cereal products imposes additional requirements specific to
bread and bakery products.

Labelling
Labelling requirements vary depending on how the product is sold. While products sold
packaged on supermarket shelves must meet the full labelling requirements, products sold
directly from the premises from which they were made have fewer labelling requirements.
This is because the consumer can obtain information about the product at the time of
purchase.
In addition, if you sell or supply food for retail sale in stores, markets, online or from vending
machines it is likely that you will be required to comply with the country of origin food
labelling information. Information about country of origin labelling requirements are available
from the ACCC website.
Labelling requirements vary in accordance with the type of food business:
 Retail bakeries
A retail bakery, where food is sold directly from the place of manufacture to a retailer, must
provide the following information to the purchaser upon request:
o Mandatory warning and advisory statements (see the section titled Mandatory
Warning and Advisory Statements and declarations in this guide).
o Nutrition information panel, on display or provided to the purchaser upon request
(verbally or in writing), only where a nutritional claim is made (e.g. ‘low fat’, ‘high
fibre’, ‘gluten free’).
o If offal (brain, heart, kidney, liver, tongue or tripe) is in meat pies or any other food,
the purchaser must be informed (e.g. steak and kidney pie).
o Percentage labelling of characterising ingredients (e.g. percentage of wholemeal
flour in wholemeal bread) may apply (see the section titled 'Percentage labelling' in
this guide). Other requirements for irradiated food and genetically modified food,
where the Code permits a food to be irradiated or genetically modified, respectively.
 Ingredient suppliers
Food that you receive from ingredient suppliers must include the following information either
on the food labels or on accompanying documentation:
o Name or description of the food that indicates the true nature of the food
o Lot identification
o Name and business address of the supplier.

Food Act 2006

When requested, the ingredient supplier is required to provide (in writing) any other
information in relation to the ingredient that you need for compliance with the compositional
and labelling requirements of the 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. Refer
to the Label Buster guide for information on full labelling requirements.

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.
Food that contains any of the following substances, must have the following information to
be displayed on, or in connection with the display of the food provided to the purchaser upon
request, either verbally or in writing.
The presence of any of the following foods as ingredients must be declared:
 added sulphites in concentrations of 10mg/kg or more;
 cereals containing gluten and their products, namely, wheat, rye, barley, oats and spelt
and their hybridised strains;
 glucose syrups made from wheat starch;
 crustacea and their products;
 egg and egg products;
 fish and fish products;
 milk and milk products;
 peanuts and peanut products;
 sesame seeds and sesame seed products;
 soybeans and soybean products;
 tree nuts and tree nut products (does not include coconut); and
 lupin and lupin products.
Note: There are other foods that require mandatory advisory statements or declarations that
for industry relevance, have not been included here. For further information, refer Standard
1.2.3 and to the Label Buster guide.

Warning: never use cracked or dirty eggs. Sale of cracked or dirty eggs is illegal. Cracked or dirty
eggs have a greater chance of carrying bacteria, which increases the risk of food poisoning.

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:

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 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:
 the ‘Best Before’ date; or
 the ‘Baked On’ date (using the words ‘Baked On’ or ‘Bkd
On’); or
 the ‘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 further information refer to Standard 1.2.5 or the Label Buster guide.

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 Code) as a percentage of
the food. See Standard 1.2.10.
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 fétes, etc.
 in small packages, i.e. a package with a surface area of less than 100cm2.

Percentage labelling is required where the Example

charactering ingredient/s is/are:
Mentioned in the name of the food. Blueberry muffins (% blueberries).
Usually associated by the consumer with the Christmas pudding (% dried fruit).
name of the food.
Emphasised on the label of the food in words, If the label of a packet of mixed nut biscuits
pictures or graphics. emphasises cashews - % cashews.

A category of ingredients that comprises the If the cereals are wheat, rye, barley, oats or spelt
whole of the food. - the specific name of the cereal must be
declared, or the term ‘cereals’ can be used.
An ingredient or category of ingredients, which, Flour in white bread or poppy seeds on poppy
while appearing in the name of the food, in not seed bread rolls.
such as to govern the choice of the consumer.

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 Percentage labelling is NOT required Example
where:
An ingredient or category of ingredients that Herb or garlic in herb and garlic bread.
is/are used in small quantities for the purpose
of flavouring.
An ingredient that is the sole ingredient of the Wheat flour.
food.

Compositional requirements
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:
o no less than 2mg/kg and no more than 3mg/kg of folic acid
o no less than 6.4mg/kg of thiamin.
The mandatory fortification requirements outlined above do not apply to pizza bases,
breadcrumbs, pastries, cakes (including but not limited to brioche, panettone and stollen),
biscuits or crackers. Further information can be found in Standard 2.1.1.

Food additives

Food additives must not be present in food, unless expressly permitted by the Code.
Permitted additives for bread and bakery products, and the maximum permitted level, are
provided in the table in Schedule 15-5 of the Code, under sections 6. Cereals and cereal
products, and 7. Breads and bakery products.

Composition and labelling of meat pies

Component Requirement
Meat A meat pie must have a minimum of 250g/kg of meat flesh.
Fat There is no maximum fat content for meat pies. However, if a reference is
made to the fat content of minced meat, the maximum proportion of fat in
the minced meat must be declared, in g/100g.
Offal The presence of offal (brain, heart, kidney, liver, tongue or tripe) in a pie
must be declared on the label or displayed in association with the food (e.g.
on a display sign).
Species If pies are advertised as containing one species of meat (e.g. chicken pie or
pork pie), that is the only meat species permitted in the pie.
Percentage If pies are advertised as being made up of more than one species of meat
labelling (e.g. chicken and pork pie), the label must contain the percentage of each
species (e.g. chicken (10%), pork (15%)). Standard 1.2.10.

For further information

Queensland Health have a variety of fact sheets with detailed information on food safety.
These fact sheets can be accessed at www.health.qld.gov.au.

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If you have any further questions relating to the labelling or composition of bread or bakery
products, contact the Public Health Unit for the area where you are located. Contact details
for Public Health Units can be found at www.health.qld.gov.au/system-governance/contact-
us/contact/public-health-units.

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