Product Specifications

What is a Product Specification? 

A product specification contains detailed information about a product’s content, food safety, and quality characteristics. It ensures compliance with legal and customer requirements and serves as a contract between you and your customers and between you and your suppliers. Specifications are necessary for all products you sell and for every ingredient and raw material supplied to you. The specification is a contractual agreement between the buyer and seller that the information contained in the documents is true and accurate and complies with legal requirements. 

Why Do You Need Product Specifications? 

Product specifications ensure: 

– Transparency: Your customers understand precisely what your products contain, including traceability information, providing a guarantee that your products consistently meet the specified criteria. 

– Compliance: Your product adheres to legal food safety and quality standards, offering your customers peace of mind. 

– Meets customer requirements: Your product meets customer-specific requirements, such as packaging, pack size, shelf-life, analytical standards (e.g., pH, viscosity), and organoleptic properties (e.g., colour, texture, flavour, aroma). 

Having product specifications for all your final products is a legal requirement and although the format of a Specification Document may differ from company to company the information that is required in the Specification Document is provided in Regulation 146 which is the Regulation for Labelling and Advertising of FoodStuffs (R146 of March 2010). The new draft Labelling Regulations were published in 2023, you can download the draft regulations and guideline document here. 

What Information Must Be Included in a Product Specification Document? 

A Product Specification Document should include the following information: 

information must be included in a Product Specification Document? 

• Product description 

• Manufacture’s details/supplier/producer information 

• Reference to relevant certifications (e.g Halaal or Kosher) and certificate of analysis 

• Ingredient declaration 

• Processing aids 

• Country of origin 

• Allergen and compositional information 

• Mandatory advisory and warning statements e.g., presence of Aspartame, MSG or Tartrazine 

• Mandatory declarations of certain ingredients such as Allergen-containing ingredients 

• Or the possible presence of allergens as a result of cross-product-contamination 

• Preparation, storage, shelf-life packing and coding information 

• Nutritional information (where required) 

• QUID declaration – (Quantitative Ingredient Declaration). In certain circumstances, it is necessary to state on the label the quantity, in percentage terms, of an ingredient or category of ingredients used in the manufacture or preparation of a foodstuff 

• Physical or chemical specifications 

• Microbiological specifications 

How to Compile a Product Specification 

Use the template provided in the labelling guidelines to compile your specifications. You will need to research the legal requirements for your products and contact your suppliers and customers to obtain the required information. 

The Product Specification Document is a controlled document and should be given a document number and included in your Document and Record Control System. The final product specifications should be signed by you and your customers, and raw material specifications should be signed by you and your suppliers. 

You should keep a list of all the Final Product and Raw Material Specifications and ensure that you update them when any changes occur or at least once every 2 years. 

Contact Entecom at info@entecom.co.za for assistance with the implementation of your Food Safety Management System and Food Safety Training.