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3 Ways to Make Your Cold Brew Labels Succeed

Cold brew is going through a hot spell. The cold brew coffee market is expected to see a combined annual growth rate of more than 27 percent by 2022, it makes quality packaging even more important than ever before.

With a growing market, your cold brew products will need to stick out amid the competition. Here are three ways that you can improve your cold brew labels to help your products succeed.

Make Sure Your Cold Brew Labels Stand Out

One of the first things you need to do is figure out a good labeling solution for your container. For bottles, that means you’ll might consider if you want to use a full-wrap label or a partial wrap with separate pieces for the front and back of your container. You may also want to add a bottleneck label to add some extra flair to your packaging. As for cans, you’ll want to decide how much coverage you want. If you want to add a “second skin” that conforms to the shape of your can, shrink sleeves are a good fit.

In addition to dealing with containers, you’ll need to focus on your design. If you’re looking for an edge to make your labels pop compared to your competition, a little science may help. There are multiple psychological elements that can help you create eye-catching labels, including the following four elements:

Font types
Layout design
Color psychology
Visual processing

Another way to help showcase your brand is to promote personality and be different from the typical competitors. Don’t be afraid to showcase your brand in certain light. If you want to position your product as a high-class cold brew, a sophisticated metallic foil or decorative varnish. If you qualify for organic status, consider including the organic seal to attract for environmentally and health conscious customers. Your label tells a story, so make sure your design shares the right message.

The cold brew bottle labels on display.

Make Sure Your Cold Brew Labels Perform Under Pressure

After investing time in making sure your cold brew label looks great, it’s important that they’re made to last as well. There are multiple factors that impact how long labels will last, so, you’ll want to identify any potential issues for your products. For cold brew labels, typical issues include moisture and scratches.

Like many beverages, it’s not uncommon to see cold brew containers in coolers or refrigerators. Whether they’re in direct contact with ice or water or just dealing with condensation, the presence of moisture can distort labels and even cause them to fall off your container. A water-resistant label like a film and an appropriate label adhesive can help your cold brew labels avoid these problems. If you really like the classic look of a paper label – which is quite understandable – you should invest in a material with a higher wet strength. Even the most water-resistant paper label will become fully saturated over time, so you’ll need to weigh the risks of your product’s environment with the rewards of that come with paper labels.

Scuffs and scratches are another potential issue. Surface damage can occur at many points during a product’s journey, from shipping and storage to an accidental fingernail scrape during consumption. Both paper and film labels are susceptible to the dangers of scuffing, so you should consider adding a protective laminate or varnish to help shield your label’s design from damage.

Make Sure Your Cold Brew Labels are Comply with Legal Regulations

As with any other food or beverage product, there are multiple regulations set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that you need to follow to keep your cold brew labels compliant. Certain features, such as “best by” and “sell by” dates, are optional, but there many required elements that you must display on your cold brew labels. These include:

Name of the product
Name and address of the manufacturer or distributor
Net quantity of contents
Ingredients list (including allergy-causing foods)
Nutrition facts
Any health claims

Each of the above requirements comes with specific rules that range from type and font size to specific layout instructions. Those details can be found in the FDA’s food labeling guide.

It’s also important to note that alcoholic cold brews have a whole different set of regulations to follow. If a beverage contains at least 0.5 percent alcohol by volume, it’s regulated by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) instead of the FDA. This means any alcoholic cold brews must display the following information.

The name or trade name of the brewer
The net contents of the container
The nature of the product (such as “beer”)
The place of production
An official health warning statement that follows the legibility and type rules in the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations and reads:
- GOVERNMENT WARNING: (1) According to the Surgeon General, women should not drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects. (2) Consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery, and may cause health problems.

A hand holding a cold brew can with a label.

Nail All Three Areas with the Right Label Printing Company

Once you figure out your design and know what it takes to keep your cold brew labels safe and compliant, you’re almost at the finish line. Now you just need a label printing company to make your labels a reality. Fortunately, we can help with that.

At Blue Label, we have the experts and technology to produce eye-catching beverage labels. We work with you to identify your needs and provide a label solution made specifically for your products. Contact Blue Label today to talk to one of our experts about how we can help your cold brews stand out in a growing market.

Images in this post are provided by Afficionado Coffee Roasters and Olympia Coffee.

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What You Need to Know About FDA Health Claims on Food Labels and Dietary Supplements

For something that can’t talk, labels say a whole lot about your product. A good label should be able to communicate a whole story to consumers, including what your product is, how it can help them, and why they should choose your goods instead of someone else’s. These messages are critical to the success of your products, but you need to be careful that what your label says doesn’t get you in trouble.

Health claims on food labels are one major way to help communicate the benefits of your product to your intended audience. However, the FDA is very particular about exactly what businesses try to claim. The FDA has strict guidelines for what is and isn’t acceptable on product labels to prevent consumers from being swindled by false or misleading promises. One claim may be fine, but another could result in recalls, seized products, and criminal prosecution.

As you may have guessed by now, health claims are serious business. Unfortunately, the FDA’s various definitions and rules of health claim usage are a bit difficult to understand without some help. That’s why we wanted to break down the different health claims with examples to see what it takes to ensure that what your labels say is okay with the FDA.

The Different Types of Label Claims

In general, health claims on food labels are statements made on food product labels or dietary supplements that boast some type of health benefit. This may seem simple, but the FDA doesn’t treat every claim the same way. Label claims come in multiple forms:

Health claims (which comprise of authorized health claims and qualified health claims)
Nutrient content claims
Structure/function claims

While they all have the same goal, there are distinct differences for each type of claim. In turn, the FDA has different guidelines that you need to follow depending on which claim you use.

A food product label with health claims being handled by a label printing expert.

What are health claims?

A health claim is a statement that creates a relationship between a product and some type of health benefit. For example, a specific ingredient may be tied to reduced risk for heart disease or some other condition. These claims can be represented in a few different ways:

Written statement
Symbols
Vignettes
Third-party statements

No matter how they’re represented, they still need to meet certain standards. Health claims require scientific evidence to be deemed acceptable for use. However, there are two different levels of health claims that dictate just what evidence is necessary:

Authorized health claims
Qualified health claims

Authorized health claims must meet the Significant Scientific Agreement (SSA) standard. Essentially, experts create a consensus of whether there’s enough publicly-available evidence that a certain health claim is accurate. For example, you can make the connection that diets that are low in sodium “may” or “might” reduce the risk of high blood pressure.

Qualified health claims aren’t quite as strict as their authorized compatriots. These claims don’t need to meet SSA standards, but still requires some significant scientific evidence. For example, scientific evidence suggests that including whole grains as part of a low saturated fat, low cholesterol diet, may reduce the risk of diabetes mellitus type 2 .

Of course, you need to be careful with the specific wording of statements. Fortunately, the FDA does provide approved lists of both approved health claims and qualified health claims online.

What are nutrient content claims?

While health claims dictate a certain relationship between certain ingredients or products and a health condition, nutrient content claims involve statements about specific nutrients found in your products. These include, but are not limited to:

Calories
Sugars
Cholesterol
Saturated fat
Sodium

Essentially, nutrient content claims showcase how the level of certain ingredients relate to typical products. However, your products must meet certain FDA standards to do so. For example, your label can make the claim that it’s “100 percent fat free” if it contains 0.5 g fat per 100 g. Whether you want to market that your product is an excellent source of something or contains a small amount of something else, make sure you check the FDA’s guideline for content claim criteria on page 87 of the Food Labeling Guide.

It’s also important to note that the FDA cares about not only what you claim, but also how that claim is presented on your label. The FDA mandates that any nutrient content claims should be no more than twice as prominent as the name of your food or dietary supplement. In general, that means you should make sure your claim’s type size isn’t more than twice as big as your product name. If your claim is too big or too bold in comparison to your statement of identity, the FDA will probably want to have a word with you.

What are structure/function claims?

According to the FDA, structure/function claims “describe the role of a nutrient or dietary ingredient intended to affect the structure or function in humans or that characterize the documented mechanism by which a nutrient or dietary ingredient acts to maintain such structure or function.” In short, these claims cover any statements about how a certain nutrient generally impacts the human body, as long as it doesn’t make a connection to preventing disease.

A good example of a structure/function claims is that “calcium helps create strong bones.” As long as the claim is truthful, the FDA is fine with using structure/function claims on food products.

However, the FDA is more particular about these claims if you plan to use them on dietary supplements. In that case, you need to meet the following three requirements to use these claims on your packaging.

You must have substantiation that the claims are truthful and not misleading before you make any claims
You must notify the FDA that you’re using the claim within 30 days of first marketing your product
The claim must include a mandatory disclaimer statement that is provided for in the law

Employees at a label printing company reviewing labels with health claims.

Stake Your Claim with Quality Product Labels

Health claims on food labels can help you attract customers, but it’s only one piece of the packaging puzzle. A good label needs to balance compliance and quality, which means that it’s important to work with the right label printing company.

Blue Label Packaging Company offers the right combination of printing technology and expertise to bring out the best in your label designs. In addition to offering a variety of custom label printing capabilities, we’re committed to customer service as well. We work with you throughout the process to ensure a quality product and turnaround times of three to five business days after proofs are approved.

When you’re in need of eye-catching product labels, we’re ready to help. Contact us today the next time you need custom labels for your products.

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3 Food Safety Labeling Considerations

Food safety is serious business, and packaging plays a pivotal role in protecting the consumers. While good food labels won’t prevent a product from spoiling, it can provide consumers with information to protect themselves from potentially harmful factors.

Some food safety measures are required by law, which means taking certain precautions with your labels can not only protect your consumers, but also your wallet and reputation. Here are three food safety concerns you should consider for your labels.

Specifications for Meat, Poultry, and Egg Products

You need to be careful with the language you use on labels meant for meat, poultry, and egg products. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is very particular about certain descriptions that you may use on your labels, such as fresh poultry versus frozen, claims of “no hormones,” and other identifiers.

Fortunately, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) offers a glossary of labeling terms and what it takes for you to legally use them. These guidelines can range from the temperatures of certain products to the process by which the meat, poultry, or eggs are prepared. Some terms, such as “chemical free” are not allowed at all.

Food labels that meet safety regulations.

Identify Food Allergens

The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) of 2004 placed an emphasis on proper labeling for food allergens. According to the FDA, a group of eight allergens, which the FALCPA call “major food allergens,” account for at least 90 percent of all food allergies:

Milk
Eggs
Peanuts
Tree nuts (such as almonds, cashews, walnuts)
Fish (such as bass, cod, flounder)
Shellfish (such as crab, lobster, shrimp)
Soy
Wheat

If your packaged food product contains one of these allergens in any form, such as an ingredient, flavoring, coloring, or any incidental additive, you’re going to need to make sure your label reflects that. According to FALCPA, you can call out allergens on your labels in one of three different ways.

Include it in the ingredient list while using the allergen’s common name
Add the less common form of the allergen in the ingredient list and add the major allergen type in parentheses, such as “albumin (egg)”
Add a line that begins with the word “Contains” followed by the name of the allergen, such as “Contains eggs, milk”

As with any violation of federal law, a failure to list major food allergens can result in some major consequences. The FDA can pursue legal action against any offending companies and even seize packaged food products that aren’t compliant with labeling regulations. Long story short, make sure your food labels properly list any allergens to protect your business and your customers.

A digital label printing company working on specialty food labels.

Proper Food Dating

“Best by” and “sell by” dates are a common sight on food labels, but aside from infant formula, there are no federal regulations that require product dating. The FDA views dates as an indicator of product quality and have made efforts to move away from the usage of “best by” and “sell by” on labels.

According to the FDA, between 30 and 40 percent of food in the United States goes uneaten, which is partially caused by consumers confusing food product dating with safety concerns instead of quality. This miscommunication has led FSIS to recommend that food products use a “best if used by” date. However, the addition of this date is voluntary. If you do decide to include a date you also must include a phrase that explains what “best if used by” means to communicate that the date is a quality standard and not a safety indicator.

Quality Food Labels for Quality Products

Food safety is a big priority, and so is branding. The right food safety label needs to include all the proper information for your product, attract customers to buy your food, and do so while dealing with scratches, condensation, and any other potential hazards for your food packaging labels.

Fortunately, a good digital label printing company can help you accomplish all three goals. At Blue Label Packaging Company, we have the technology and expertise to create the product labels made specifically for your needs. Contact us today to talk to one of our experts about your next food label project.

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Crowler Packaging: Guidelines and Rules to Know

Crowlers are great for several reasons. They’re extremely portable. They’re able to keep light out and help beer stay fresh for up to a month. They’re more convenient than lugging around a glass growler. In all, crowlers are a wonderful way to sell beverages in convenient 32 oz. containers—if they’re in accordance with the law, that is.

Like their glassy growler cousins, crowler packaging can run into some legal issues if you’re not careful. Consider the following legal guidelines for your custom crowler labels.
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Key Compliance Considerations You Need to Know for Your Kombucha Labels

Once an underground sensation, kombucha is becoming big business. According to The Specialty Food Association, the kombucha market had $1.5 billion in sales in 2017 and is expected to grow 23 percent over the next five years. However, the growing kombucha market is drawing attention from more than just thirsty customers, which makes proper packaging even more important than before.

A kombucha label is more than just a way to brand your products. It also serves as a compliance tool to ensure that your products are labelled in accordance to any government regulations. Here are the kombucha basics and some important areas that can directly impact labels for kombucha.
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