4. The packaging

For a food producer, the packaging is the most important brand carrier of all. It shows on the shelf, in the hand, on the dinner table and in customers' photos – and it works around the clock without you being there. At the same time it is the only one of your brand expressions with legal requirements attached. This part is about both sides: standing out on the shelf, and getting everything in that has to be there.

Your brand in the hand

In the shop you have a few seconds. The customer walks the aisle, the eye sweeps – and what decides is not what the label says but what the package radiates: cheap or careful, industrial or craft, from somewhere else or from here.

Everything you decided in the previous step should show here: your place on the map, your colour, your shape, your tone. The packaging is where the distinctive assets pay off – it's the thing the customer actually holds.

• The material is a message too. Kraft paper, glass, a wooden cork – they say something before the text does. Choose materials that match your place on the map.
• One thing loudest. The front should say one thing above all: who you are. Variety, flavour and everything else comes second.
• The same family. More products? The same base, one clear difference per variety – then every new product strengthens the others on the shelf.

Passing the shelf test

Do it for real, in a shop that sells your kind of product:

1. Put your product (or a printed mock-up) among ten competitors.
2. Take three steps back. Does it show? Does it draw the eye – or blend in?
3. Take one step closer. Is it recognised? Would a customer who met you at the market or on Instagram say "that's them" in a second?
4. Pick it up at arm's length. Can you read the name and variety without squinting?
5. Turn it over. Do you find the answers a customer looks for – what is it, what's in it, where is it from?

Photograph the shelf while you're there. It's your best working material – and you'll see right away which colour and shape are free in your category.

The front sells – the back informs

Think of the label as two jobs on one surface. The front is feeling: name, mark, one line about what it is. The back is facts: everything the customer (and the law) needs to know. Don't mix the jobs up – a front full of information doesn't sell, and a back without order breeds distrust.

What has to be there

Food labelling is governed by common EU rules, and you as the producer are responsible for getting it right. This must in principle always be on a pre-packed food product:

• The name of the food – what it actually is ("cold-pressed rapeseed oil", not just a fantasy name).
• The ingredient list in descending order by weight.
• Allergens clearly emphasised in the ingredient list, e.g. in bold (gluten, milk, eggs, nuts …).
• Net quantity – weight or volume.
• Dates: best-before date, or use-by date for perishable goods.
• Storage instructions where needed ("once opened, keep refrigerated …").
• Name and address of the business responsible for the product.
• Origin where required – and always if the label could otherwise mislead.
• Nutrition declaration (energy, fat, carbohydrates, protein, salt etc.).
• Readable text: at least 1.2 mm letter height (0.9 mm on small packs) – and in Swedish for the Swedish market.

Check before you print. The rules have exceptions and details (small-scale direct sales, alcohol, honey has rules of its own …). The Swedish Food Agency (Livsmedelsverket) has good guidance, and your municipality's food inspector would much rather answer a question up front than find errors afterwards. A misprinted batch is expensive.

The barcode – your ticket into the shop

If you only sell in the farm shop and at the market you can do without. But if you want into grocery retail, the product needs a barcode (EAN) – it's how the shop's till and stock system recognise the item.

• Barcodes are issued via GS1 Sweden (gs1.se). You subscribe to a number series; a start-up fee plus an annual fee based on your company's turnover – for the smallest companies a few thousand kronor a year.
• Print it right: black on a light background, don't shrink it too far, and leave the light margin around the code alone. A code that won't scan causes irritation at every till.
• Retail chains often also want product information registered digitally – ask your buyer what applies before you print.

Small scale, simple means

You don't have to start with a print shop. A printer and label sheets, or a simple label printer, go a long way for the farm shop and the market – hand-written touches can even strengthen the craft feeling, like a lovely example from the island: a small bottle of crema di äpple with a hand-lettered label. But the same labelling rules apply regardless of the print run, and when you head for shops: test the print at real size before ordering the whole batch, and do the shelf test again with the finished package.