Weight claims on Herbs
For the labeling experts:
So according to the CFR, foods with no significant nutrition value are exempt from nutritional labeling. So you must always label net weight on the package, and as I recall even without the Nutrition facts label you still need to list the weight on the package.
So question, We repack a certain type of herb, this herb comes in tied bundles. (the stems are all formed together as a bundle), and we just take these bundles and place them in bags (repacking from bulk to smaller bags). We have a certain weight on the bag and sometimes to add up to the weight we either cut off from the bundle or cut off from another bundle and add it.
As a Food Safety person I could careless about this issue, but purchasing/accountants and all these people are saying they are not profiting from it. they want to either change weight or a price increase, they want to know what exactly weight to put on there (even some were like can we not put weight, yikes).
Purchasing says they pay for a certain amount and when we sell it (after repacking), there is no profit due to weight issues. We can out more not less than weight claims on the label, right?
So what is the correct thing to do in my case about weight? (hope everyone's not confused as I am)
:)
Not exactly the same as it sounds your dealing with fresh herbs? But i'm also with a spice company, our big issue is weight changes in dried herbs. Its a constant battle as we'll get parsley that will fill a bottle perfectly one lot and the next lot you cant fit the right weight in the bottle as it wont fit. Dropping the weight doesn't help because then if you get a lot in that is denser now the bottles wont look full. Another example would be we sell freeze dried chives most of the time but occasionally have to switch to air dried depending on supplier inventory and the air dried are smaller pieces/denser.
We overfill all of our bottles by .2 or so oz on every bottle to be safe, but we have gotten fined by the state of New Jersey twice for overfilling our bottles. It has never been an issue other than that.
Not exactly answering your question, but i would be interested in hearing some others opinions.
Not exactly the same as it sounds your dealing with fresh herbs? But i'm also with a spice company, our big issue is weight changes in dried herbs. Its a constant battle as we'll get parsley that will fill a bottle perfectly one lot and the next lot you cant fit the right weight in the bottle as it wont fit. Dropping the weight doesn't help because then if you get a lot in that is denser now the bottles wont look full. Another example would be we sell freeze dried chives most of the time but occasionally have to switch to air dried depending on supplier inventory and the air dried are smaller pieces/denser.
We overfill all of our bottles by .2 or so oz on every bottle to be safe, but we have gotten fined by the state of New Jersey twice for overfilling our bottles. It has never been an issue other than that.
Not exactly answering your question, but i would be interested in hearing some others opinions.
Yup dried herbs not fresh.
Yes weights have been so annoying to deal with.
But the issue is that they do not see profit from the weight of this product and the weights we are claiming.
Unless I'm missing something this sounds like a business issue. If the product is not profitable than team needs to get together and figure it out.
The weight on the label is what the weight should be in the bags. Any more and you're losing money, any less and you're at risk for fraud.
Pretty sure spices and such still fall under the jurisdiction of some US alphabet entity, therefore NIST Handbook 133. Table A-5 would have your MAV for less than a 36 gram container at +/- 10% of declared net weight. Anyways, not sure if this answers the question or not...
NIST Handbook 133 Net Weights.pdf 175.25KB 8 downloads
edited for grammar