Is there an acceptable deviation in QUID ingredients declarations?

Hi Guys,

Is there a tolerence or acceptable deviation in QUID indredients declarations iirc its 20% for nutritional but I can't find any guidance for ingredients

I was about to say 20% but it was on the same basis as your reasoning. I would say though that having thought it through, that seems a bit lax. If you think about it, QUID is based upon what you put in (which is totally in your control), nutritional is based upon what you put in (which you have control over), seasonality (which you have no control over) and process variation (which you have some control over) so it is more prone to variation. I don't know if there is an 'official' guideline. Your TSO would be a good point of call but I suppose it's worth considering why it would change.

Practically it's going to be pretty hard for someone to check your QUID is accurate by testing but that's not a reason to cheat. It depends on the product too. Chocolate in a chocolate bar is going to be pretty simple, tomato in a soup will be harder. So my question is, why are you asking? A reasonable margin of error, i.e. what is the error in your scales and weighing is probably a good starting point. Also it's not just about law but about customers, I can't imagine Tesco PIU putting up with someone diddling them.

Anyway, I will be interested in someone who knows all the QUID stuff better than me. I'm definitely going to have a good old look at the legislation on all of this as it's something I really need to get stronger on. It's a bit of a black hole for lots of people I think?

Dear Lanser,

It's an interesting question and i suspect the answer, as in the parallel nutrition thread, may prove rather elusive. This topic also overlaps EC regs (notably of 2011 maybe).

Personally, hv never met any specific justification challenges for products in my domain for small or large amount items. This previous thread seemed generally relevant, especially post#4. However i couldn't see a specific answer to yr query in the attached pdf (several comments referred back to details within food regs of 1996.)
http://www.ifsqn.com...dpost__p__43080

This page is usually a popular source but couldn't see a direct answer there either.
http://www.reading.a...abel/index2.htm

I tried a little searching on FSA website and noticed a lot of links to animal feedstuffs but again nothing much on retail products.

No doubt the experts will deliver more.

Rgds / Charles.C

PS, in case of any interest, here is quid 1996 (latest ver.?) -
quid 1996.pdf   61.73KB   27 downloads

Hi Guys,

Is there a tolerence or acceptable deviation in QUID indredients declarations iirc its 20% for nutritional but I can't find any guidance for ingredients

Hi. I can't claim any expertise, but happy to share my experience of looking for the same answer a couple of years ago! From memory, there are a couple of key points to bear in mind:
1. QUID is determined at 'mixing bowl' stage, and a tolerance is permitted to allow for variations that then occur through the packing process. i.e, you have to be able to prove that you put the right proportion of ingredients in the mix in the first place, and that any difference between that and what's in the finished product is just down to normal process variation.

2. No pack of finished product should be 'unreasonably deficient' in an ingredient.

What no-one would tell me however, is what consititues 'unreasonably deficient', as I guess that will have to be determined by a legal challenge. As a guide, our TSO indicated that they would usually expect manufacturers to target being within 10% of the QUID, but that they would have to view each product on it's merits, and the likely impact on the consumer - if the product is deficient in one of the characterising or more expensive ingredients, then the consumer is more likely to feel aggrieved, and the more likley they would be to investigate.

Based on this, I worked to an aspirational target of 10%, with a realistic tolerance of 20%, except for some specific expensive ingredients where we changed the process to make sure we were more accurate.

Hope that helps!

Agree with Zanshin as per aspirational standards. It would be extremely difficult to produce EU legislation regarding QUID limits. It does come down to process afterall. Take a multiseeded product as opposed to a pork product for example - the limits and tolerances would be quite different from both a legal and customer satisfaction perspective. Putting on my worst auditor's hat, if you or your auditor are concerned about your QUID's, try more regular mass balance internal audits to prove that over the period of, say, a week or a month, the average usage of the QUID related ingredient is in line with your declared percentage. This will increase your workload, but will bypass the unfortunate and expensive bum nutritional results.

I understand that particular major retailers have a -5% tolerance of the declared label value.