KAMPALA — The Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) has called upon all local manufacturers to comply with the labelling standards and desist from deceptive labelling of their products.
This follows posts making rounds on social media alleging that pork sausages are labelled with ‘Halal’.
Following inspections done by the UNBS surveillance team at the said location, the pork sausages found did not have any Halal claims.
However, UNBS reiterated the call to have the labelling of all products under mandatory standards complying with the labelling standard and to be certified and issued with the UNBS Distinctive Mark before they are put on the market.
Products under mandatory standards are those that have a direct effect on the health of the user for example food, cosmetics, electronics and electro products, children’s toys and many others. The labelling standard, US EAS 38:2013, Labelling of pre-packaged foods – General requirements, can be accessed via UNBS website.
Key among the labelling requirements for pre-packaged foods is to have the name of the food declared on the label, the list of ingredients, the net contents and drained weights, the name and physical address of the manufacturer, packer, distributor, importer, exporter or vendor of the food, country of origin, Lot
identification, Date marking ( production and expiry date), Storage instructions, instructions for use, Quantitative labelling of ingredients; all in the English language and/or any other official language used in
the importing East African Partner state, as stated in the standard.
