SFDA Food Labeling Requirements: A Packaging Design Checklist

In our experience, many food packaging problems in Saudi Arabia are not design problems but sequencing problems. The front of pack gets weeks of attention, the back panel is filled in at the end from a spreadsheet, and the artwork that reaches the SFDA registration system or the port is missing an Arabic line, carries a claim nobody can prove, or leaves no room for the factory to code the dates. The fix is to treat the regulated information as the first layer of the layout, not the last.

This guide turns the main Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) labelling texts into layout decisions for retail packs, multipacks and gift boxes. It is a review checklist for brand owners, importers and designers, not legal advice. SFDA regulations are revised from time to time, and several of the texts below have newer GCC editions than the copies quoted here, so check the current edition of each one before you sign off artwork.

The rules your artwork is checked against

SFDA’s own FAQ on food labelling requirements points to three technical regulations, all sold through its Mwasfah standards store. Its conditions for food clearance add a fourth that shapes the back panel: the mandatory expiry-date rule.

Start with an inventory of the back panel

Before anyone opens a design file, list every statement the pack must carry and who supplies it. In the 2013 text the core items are:

The 2013 text also sets the general tone: no false or misleading descriptions, no imagery that makes the product look like something else, no quality-management logos such as ISO certificates on the label, and no quality or organic marks without proof (clauses 4.1–4.4). The clearance conditions add that any logo on a label needs a certificate proving it is authentic, that a Halal logo or quality or organic mark needs proof, and that a gluten-free claim needs a certificate under GSO 1021.

Arabic first, and the sticker question

SFDA answers this directly in its FAQ: a food label cannot be in English only. Arabic is required, another language may sit alongside it, and the information in both must match. For a designer, “must match” is the important part. A promotional line, a serving suggestion or a storage tip that exists only in English is a mismatch waiting to be found.

Practical layout decisions that follow from this:

• Design the Arabic and English panels as a pair. Use mirrored columns or stacked blocks with the same order of information, so a reviewer can compare line by line.
• Choose an Arabic typeface that stays legible at small sizes. The 2013 text requires statements to be clearly visible and easily legible (7.1.2) and sets no minimum font size; we have not seen the current edition, so check whether it adds one, and test the smallest line on an actual proof, not on screen.
• Translate from a locked source. Freeze the English (or origin-language) copy, translate it once, and have a native Arabic reviewer check ingredient and additive names against the specification sheet.

Importers often plan to add Arabic with a sticker. GSO 9/2013 allows a supplementary Arabic sticker only under tight conditions: a single sticker, provided by the manufacturer only, that does not cover required information, does not contradict the original label and stays attached in normal handling and distribution (7.2.2). It also states that additional date stickers are not permitted and that dates must not be removed or altered (7.2.2, 5.7.3). The clearance conditions do not address stickers. If your supply plan depends on stickering in a Saudi warehouse, check it against the current text before the first order ships.

The clearance conditions also allow a commitment through the FASAH platform that the label will be in English, but only for food intended for manufacturing, including factories and restaurants, that is not sold or served directly to consumers; sauces and flavourings placed on consumer tables are excluded. It does not apply to retail packs, so do not design them around it.

Dates, lot codes and the space the factory owns

In practice, dates are where artwork and production most often collide. GSO 9/2013 sets these rules:

• A production date is mandatory, alongside the expiry or “best before” date (5.7.2).
• For products with a minimum durability of less than three months, dates are written as day–month–year; for longer durability, month–year is used and the product is valid to the end of that month (5.7.1).
• Dates must be applied permanently by the producer, not added later, and only one production date and one expiry date may appear on the pack (5.7.3).
• Each container must carry a permanent mark identifying the factory and the lot (8.3).
• Some products, such as unpeeled fresh fruit and vegetables, non-fortified salt, solid sugars, honey, dry legumes and loose tea, are exempt from the expiry date but still need a production or harvest date (5.7.4).

For the designer, this means a clear, blank coding window on a flat surface, labelled in Arabic and English (“Production date / تاريخ الإنتاج”, “Expiry date / تاريخ الانتهاء”), sized for the factory’s coder and placed away from folds, seals and varnish that ink will not hold on. Ask the factory for the coder type and the minimum window size before you set the dieline. Avoid date placeholders in the artwork that could read as a second date. JETRO’s guide also notes that, under the 2022 edition, a lot number may be optional where the production date is shown in full, which is one more reason to confirm the current text with the factory.

Storage and preparation instructions belong near the dates when shelf life depends on them (5.7.5–5.7.6). The SFDA pre-registration evaluation guide also says warnings and preservation methods must be clearly shown on the label.

Nutrition panel and claims: where marketing copy meets regulation

According to an Intertek compliance notice (May 2021), SFDA’s nutritional labelling regulation for imports was implemented in January 2021. The GCC text has since been revised: ChemLinked lists GSO 2233:2025, in force from 30 April 2025, and its summary of that text names energy, protein, carbohydrates, fat, saturated fat, salt or sodium and total sugars, with small packs under 25 cm² among the exemptions. We could not open the regulation itself, so confirm the required nutrients, their order and the table format on the current SFDA.FD/GSO 2233 before you set the panel. Not every product needs a panel: SFDA’s FAQ confirms that single-ingredient foods such as rice, tea, coffee or sugar are exempt under item 5/2/1. Whether a plain roasted nut qualifies is worth confirming; a seasoned mix is not a single ingredient. SFDA also offers a free nutrition label calculator that calculates a product’s nutrition data from what you enter, which is a useful cross-check against the lab values your supplier provides.

Claims need more care, because they usually sit on the front of pack where marketing wants the most freedom. SFDA’s guide to nutrition and health claims explains that SFDA.FD 2333 (updated 2018) permits a defined list of nutrition and health claims, each with conditions. Examples from the guide:

• “High fibre”: at least 6 g of fibre per 100 g, or 3 g per 100 kcal.
• “Source of protein”: at least 12% of energy from protein; “high protein” needs at least 20%.
• “Light” or “less” claims: at least 30% lower than similar products in the nutrient concerned.

The SFDA General Rules for Products Claim (2021) add the principles: claims must be true and supported by evidence, and food claims may not promise a specific percentage or amount of weight loss or say that a food prevents or treats a disease. On language, the English text says claims “should be written in either Arabic And English”; plan for both and confirm with SFDA. The pre-registration guide adds that a claim statement may not use the product name or trademark, and that claims such as “gluten-free” or “lactose-free” need lab analysis.

A simple discipline we recommend: every word on the front of pack that describes a benefit goes into a claims register with the evidence beside it. If there is no evidence, the word becomes brand language (“slow roasted”, “selected in Riyadh”) rather than a nutrition or health claim.

Gift boxes, sleeves and multipacks

Outer formats such as gift boxes, sleeves and multipacks tend to create two labelling gaps.

First, the outer layer hides the label. GSO 9/2013 says that where a wrapper covers the container, either the wrapper carries the required information or the label underneath must be readable through it (7.1.3). A closed gift box holding several sealed jars therefore needs a plan: either each inner unit is fully labelled and the box is clearly decorative, or the box itself carries the full mandatory panel for what is sold.

Second, small inner units run out of space. The 2013 text includes an exemption for very small packs (largest surface under 10 cm²) from some items, with the information moving to the outer packaging (clause 6), but the English wording does not make clear which items are exempt. The nutrition regulation has its own small-pack threshold (25 cm² in the 2025 GCC text, as summarised by ChemLinked). Confirm both on the current editions before you design a range of miniatures around them.

As a hypothetical example, a nuts and dates brand preparing an assorted gift box might use a sleeve with a full bilingual panel listing every component, allergens for the whole assortment and one production and expiry date, with each inner tub fully labelled as a single SKU. If the box is assembled locally from imported units, check whose name goes on the box and which dates apply before any artwork is approved.

A pre-submission checklist

SFDA’s registration system FAQ asks for a clear, readable label image showing all sides, matching the data entered (name, origin, packaging, weight), with the product name entered in Arabic; each image file is limited to 1 MB. That makes the artwork itself part of the registration file. Before you submit or ship:

1. Confirm the current editions of SFDA.FD/GSO 9, SFDA.FD/GSO 2233, SFDA.FD 2333 and SFDA.FD/GSO 150-1 on Mwasfah, and update any clause references in your brief.
2. Check that the descriptive product name and net contents sit together on the main panel.
3. Compare the Arabic and English text line by line; nothing in one language is missing from the other.
4. Check the ingredients order and allergen declarations against the supplier’s specification.
5. Match the nutrition table to lab results, or document why the product is exempt.
6. List every claim and logo (Halal, organic, quality, gluten-free) with its certificate or evidence.
7. Confirm the coding window with the factory, and remove anything that could read as a second date.
8. Check gift boxes, sleeves and multipacks: is the required information visible or repeated on the outside?
9. Prepare clear label images showing every side, within the file-size limit, plus high-resolution product artwork.
10. Approve a physical proof, not only the PDF, and check it against the approved artwork before mass production.

The last step is easy to rush. A colour shift can push small Arabic text below legibility, and a misplaced varnish can make dates smudge. Through its packaging and brand applications work, RX prepares production-ready files and supervises fabrication partners: agreeing materials, reviewing proofs and checking them against the approved artwork. The brand owner or importer remains responsible for the registration itself. Our guide to production supervision and colour quality covers that proof stage in more detail. If you supply retail and HORECA buyers at the same time, our guide to marketing a food import business covers the product data and catalogues that should come from the same approved source.

For gifting brands, approved packs then become the centre of the content, from seasonal campaigns (our Ramadan campaign plan for food and gifting brands covers the calendar) to the packshots used on delivery apps (see food photography for delivery apps). Our work with Mix Nuts, a premium nuts and gifting brand in Riyadh, covered that side: from the grand opening to delivery-app campaigns and cinematic reels.