Product labels

About product labels

Products carry marks meant for different readers. Some are printed for shoppers, like the ingredients information on a toothpaste box or tube. Others are there for the machines that make the package: the coloured square on a toothpaste tube is read by a sensor on the production line, and similar marks appear on milk packets and cream sachets. Others are certification marks, which an outside organization lets a product carry once it has checked the product or its maker against a published standard: the Rainforest Alliance, for example, allows its seal only on products from farms and companies its auditors have certified.

This collection has four systems. Packaging symbols are marks on the package itself: the toothpaste tube’s colour mark, the open jar and hourglass on cosmetics, the ℮ beside the weight and the glass and fork for food contact. Recycling symbols say what a package is made of, whether it can be recycled, or how it is to be collected. Certification marks cover kosher, halal, organic and other seals. Country of origin marks say where a thing was made, from Made in Occupied Japan to Made in PRC, with the RN and CA numbers on clothing labels.

Which kind of mark is it?

A coloured square on the crimp of a tube is an eye mark for the sealing machine, and its colour has nothing to do with what is inside. Chasing arrows around a number from 1 to 7 are a resin identification code: the number identifies the plastic, and does not by itself mean the item is recycled or that anyone can process it. Folded arrows chasing one another in a triangle, with no number, are the recycle symbol: the item is capable of being recycled, or, with a percentage inside, contains that much recycled material. The Green Dot, used in some European countries, looks like a recycling mark but shows that the producer has paid towards recovering and recycling packaging. A certifier’s logo, such as the USDA organic seal, is a certification mark.

A check or a claim

A certification mark means someone other than the maker has checked. Words on a pack are often the maker’s own claim: the US Food and Drug Administration points out that there are no legal definitions for “cruelty free” or “not tested on animals”, and the Forest Stewardship Council contrasts its Recycled label with general recycled claims, which require no verification. Under the Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guides, a resin code printed prominently on the front label, near the product name, is a claim that the item is recyclable; the same code embedded in the bottom of the container is not.