Agricultural Product Standards Act, 1990 (Act No. 119 of 1990)

Regulations

Classification, Packing and Marking of Dairy Products and Imitation Dairy Products intended for sale in the Republic of South Africa

Part IV : Marking Requirements

30. Indicating the date marking or batch code or batch number
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(1) Each container of a dairy and imitation dairy product shall be clearly marked with the date marking or batch code or batch number in such a way that the specific batch is easily identifiable and traceable.

 

(2)

(a) If a date marking appears on a container—
(i) it shall be preceded by appropriate wording "best before" or "best quality before" and/or "use by", and/or "expiration date", depending on the nature of the dairy product or imitation dairy product concerned;
(ii) abbreviations of the preceding wording shall not be allowed, except in the case of "best before" where the abbreviation "BB" may be used;
(iii) the date sequence shall be "day-month-year" (i.e. "dd/mm/yyyy") when numbers only are used: Provided that in the case of imported products where an altered date sequence is used, the month shall be indicated in letters, either written out in full or abbreviated, and the year shall be written out in full; and
(iv) it shall not be removed or altered by any person.
(b) If dairy products or imitation dairy products are packed in an outer container, which will during normal usage be discarded by the consumer, the date marking shall, if indicated, appear on each individual container that will be retained by the consumer until consumption.