Food establishments that package foods for off-site sale, such as wholesaling of pre-packaged products for sale in grocery stores or at farmers markets, or off-site consumption, such as ready-made sandwiches, are required to label those packaged foods, and must obtain approval for each of those labels from the Health District.

Foods requiring labels are those durably pre-packaged before customer order, such as packets of spice blends, bagged and sealed bread, bagged and sealed cookies and cakes, salsa or condiments in tubs or jars, premade wrapped sandwiches, etc.

Products selected by customers before bagging or packing do not require labels. These items include, but are not limited to, deli meats and salads packaged at the counter, made-to-order sandwiches, whole breads, cookies, cakes, donuts, that are boxed or bagged after ordering, and customer order delivery or over the counter sales of food where a temporary bag, wrapper, or carry out box is used for short term containment or transport.

The label approval process requires an application and submission of all labels to be reviewed. The initial fee is provided on the last page of the fee schedule SNHD’s EH Fee Schedule. This fee covers the first hour needed to review the documents. If an hour is not enough time to review all labels submitted, an additional hourly fee as noted on the fee schedule will be charged.

The fees include the time required to review, prepare correction comments, review corrected labels, and prepare final approval documentation. Final approval documentation will be sent to you and will specify which labels are approved for use.

Labels must meet the requirements provided in NAC 446.187, Labeling;  21 CFR 101, Food Labeling; and 9 CFR 317, Labeling, Marking Devices, and Containers.

The FDA has a labeling guide for 21 CFR 101 available at https://www.fda.gov/media/81606/download.

The purpose of the food labeling guide is to help retail food establishment operators in developing labels, which will be in conformance with health district requirements, for the food products they package for display and off-premises consumption. This labeling requirement does not apply to customer order delivery or over the counter sales of food where a temporary bag, wrapper or carry out box is used for short-term containment or transport.

For more information or to schedule a label review, please contact Environmental Health regsupport@snhd.org or (702) 759-0500.