Estimated sign (℮)

How to read it

The ℮, called the estimated sign or e-mark, is a small lowercase e printed beside the weight or volume on a package. It comes from EU Directive 76/211/EEC on prepackaged products, which sets it at least 3 mm high, in the same field of vision as the quantity. By printing it, the packer or importer guarantees that the packs meet the directive: their actual contents are not less, on average, than the quantity stated, and no pack is short by more than twice the permitted shortfall. It is an average, so a single pack may hold slightly less than the label says. Unicode encodes the sign as U+212E ESTIMATED SYMBOL.

Also searched as: ℮, e after weight, e mark, e mark on food packaging, estimated sign, e symbol on packaging.

Optional, and only on some sizes

The mark is voluntary. The UK’s Office for Product Safety and Standards says no package has to carry it, that the rules forbid it on packages that don’t meet certain criteria, and that the UK has gone on recognising it since 1 January 2021. The National Standards Authority of Ireland says it may appear only on packages from 5 g or 5 ml up to 10 kg or 10 litres, applied by the packer or importer. Authorities in other member states report non-compliant Irish packs to the Irish office.

The shape is set by law

The directive doesn’t leave the letter to the printer’s typeface: the e must have the form shown in a drawing in an earlier directive, 71/316/EEC.