Washington D.C., (Apr. 13, 2021) - Prime Label Consultants, Inc. (PLC) announces the expansion of Label IQ, a software-enabled regulatory review service, now supporting assessment of ingredients for Bioengineered (BE) Labeling. The rapid innovation of this new functionality is motivated by the approaching enforcement deadline for the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard, of January 1, 2022.
The Label IQ BE Labeling Assessment uses technology to filter lists of ingredients and identify potential triggers requiring a BE label disclosure, as well as identify if a product may be exempt from BE labeling. The results are delivered in the form of a BE Certificate which can be saved in a label record as documentation or used to take action to achieve compliance. Intended for FDA and USDA food manufacturers, brands, and retailers, this service delivers an efficient and cost effective way to assess BE compliance and mitigate enforcement risk.
“The Label IQ BE Certificate is critical in supporting the new regulation’s record keeping requirement. For products which are either exempt or which do disclose bioengineered ingredients, the Label IQ BE Certificate is an efficient and clear method of documentation”, said Christina Bechtold, CEO of PLC. "For brands that are struggling to understand which ingredients in the food supply are bioengineered, the Label IQ BE Certificate highlights which ingredients to focus on for followup, streamlining the communication process with suppliers.”
PLC has been at the forefront helping the industry navigate BE Labeling since the law passed in 2018. Common questions on this regulation include which products fall under the regulation, which ingredients in the food supply are bioengineered, and how to best fulfill the government's record keeping requirements. PLC’s Label IQ BE Labeling assessment tackles all of these challenges in the most competitively priced service the firm has to offer - $30 per product. Additionally, if the product is exempt from the BE law, Label IQ generates a cost-free Certificate documenting the exemption.
"Complying with the new bioengineered labeling rule can be a detailed and complicated task. Many brands do not realize that common ingredients such as sugar, food starch, and citric acid may trigger BE disclosure. PLC has created an automated process to quickly flag potential BE ingredients," said Dr. Jesse Zuehlke, PLC's General Manager. "We rely on our proprietary database of thousands of ingredients to execute this service in a quick and efficient manner. We are very confident customers will find this an instrumental tool in determining the bioengineered status of their products."
For certain complex cases, Label IQ is backed by a team of PLC Regulatory Consultants. These experts are available to help clients interpret supplier documentation, develop record keeping strategy, and provide guidance on whether and how to disclose bioengineering on a product’s label.
Clients can initiate service in three easy steps - visiting the Label IQ order form, providing information on the product and ingredient statement, and submitting the order.
About Label IQ
Label IQ is a technology-enabled service developed by PLC to improve the speed and accuracy of label compliance. Leveraging decades of software development, ingredient and nutrition expertise, Label IQ automates time consuming regulatory tasks and currently supports assessment of Bioengineered Labeling and Nutrition Facts Panels, checking for over 1000 bioengineered-derived ingredients and reviewing over 1300 regulatory data points related to nutrition. The result is a rigorous review of critical features for your product labeling, which meets the needs of Regulatory, Quality, R&D and Labeling professionals across the food industry.
About Prime Label Consultants
Prime Label Consultants (PLC) has been helping companies navigate food labeling since 1972. As a full-service consulting firm, PLC leverages almost 50 years of food and beverage regulatory and nutrition expertise in client support ranging from general guidance to complete project development. The combination of systems, automation, training and expertise results in an unparalleled level of compliance, efficiency and cost savings for our customers.
PLC is an industry leader in nutrition labeling compliance and software, working directly with most of the top 100 food manufacturers in the United States. Globally, the firm has had over 3,500 clients for both FDA and USDA regulated products and has hosted the nation's premier food labeling conference since 1989.
