The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) said it has adapted a standard specification for the labelling of commodities after the National Standards Council approved a final draft.

In a press release the GNBS said Part 2 of the Labelling of Prepackaged goods “GYS 9 – 2: 1994″ is the mandatory standard developed to prevent fraud and deception arising from misleading labelling as well as to give adequate information to consumers of packaged goods.

The standard specifies the “requirements for the information to be included on the labels of goods prepackaged for retail sale, the method of display of such information, and where necessary the wording to be used.”

It includes general and specific labelling requirements. Under the general requirements it states that no label declaration, method of presentation or publicity concerning the product shall be made in a manner that is likely to mislead the purchaser about the true nature of the product as a whole.

Every pack of the item must also be labelled with the common name and brand name or registered trade name, net contents, address of processor, manufacturer or distributor, an accurate description of the major ingredients or components of the goods and a date mark or date of minimum durability. The label must also be “clear, prominently displayed and readily legible to the consumer under normal conditions of purchase and use.”

The GNBS said copies of the standard are available at its Technical Standards Information Unit.