[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 9, Volume 2]
[Revised as of January 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 9CFR381.116]

[Page 472-473]
 
                  TITLE 9--ANIMALS AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS
 
     CHAPTER III--FOOD SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF 
                               AGRICULTURE
 
PART 381_POULTRY PRODUCTS INSPECTION REGULATIONS--Table of Contents
 
                    Subpart N_Labeling and Containers
 
Sec. 381.116  Wording on labels of immediate containers.

    (a) Each label for use on immediate containers for inspected and 
passed poultry products shall bear on the principal display panel 
(except as otherwise permitted in the regulations), the items of 
information required by this subpart. Such items of information shall be 
in distinctly legible form. Except as provided in Sec. 381.128, all 
words, statements and other information required by or under authority 
of the Act to appear on the label or labeling shall appear thereon in 
the English language: Provided, however, That in the case of products 
distributed solely in Puerto Rico, Spanish may be substituted for 
English for all printed matter except the USDA inspection legend.

[[Page 473]]

    (b) The principal display panel shall be the part of a label that is 
most likely to be displayed, presented, shown, or examined under 
customary conditions of display for sale. The principal display panel 
shall be large enough to accommodate all the mandatory label information 
required to be placed thereon by the regulations with clarity and 
conspicuousness and without being obscured by design or vignettes, or 
crowding. Where packages bear alternate principal display panels, 
information required to be placed on the principal display panel shall 
be duplicated on each principal display panel. The area that is to bear 
the principal display panel shall be:
    (1) In the case of a rectangular package, one entire side, the area 
of which is the product of the height times the width of that side.
    (2) In the case of a cylindrical or nearly cylindrical container:
    (i) An area on the side of the container that is 40 percent of the 
product of the height of the container times the circumference, or
    (ii) A panel, the width of which is one-third of the circumference 
and the height of which is as high as the container: Provided, however, 
That there is, immediately to the right or left of such principal 
display panel, a panel which has a width not greater than 20 percent of 
the circumference and a height as high as the container, and which is 
reserved for information prescribed in Sec. Sec. 381.118, 381.122, and 
381.123. Such panel shall be known as the ``20 percent panel'' and such 
information may be shown on that panel in lieu of showing it on the 
principal display panel as provided in this Sec. 381.116.
    (3) In the case of a container of any other shape, 40 percent of the 
total surface of the container.

In determining the area of the principal display panel, exclude tops, 
bottoms, flanges at tops and bottoms of cans, and shoulders and necks of 
bottles or jars.
    (c) (1) The information panel is that part of a label that is the 
first surface to the right of the principal display panel as observed by 
an individual facing the principal display panel, with the following 
exceptions:
    (i) If the first surface to the right of the principal display panel 
is too small to accommodate the required information or is otherwise 
unusable label space, e.g., folded flaps, tear strips, opening flaps, 
heat-sealed flaps, the next panel to the right of this part of the label 
may be used.
    (ii) If the package has one or more alternate principal display 
panels, the information panel is to the right of any principal display 
panel.
    (iii) If the top of the container is the principal display panel and 
the package has no alternate principal display panel, the information 
panel is any panel adjacent to the principal display panel.
    (2) (i) Except as otherwise permitted in this part, all information 
required to appear on the principal display panel or permitted to appear 
on the information panel shall appear on the same panel unless there is 
insufficient space. In determining the sufficiency of the available 
space, except as otherwise prescribed in this part, any vignettes, 
designs, and any other nonmandatory information shall not be considered. 
If there is insufficient space for all required information to appear on 
a single panel, it may be divided between the principal display panel 
and the information panel, provided that the information required by any 
given provision of this part, such as the ingredients statement, is not 
divided and appears on the same panel.
    (ii) All information appearing on the information panel pursuant to 
this section shall appear in one place without intervening material, 
such as designs or vignettes.

[37 FR 9706, May 16, 1972, as amended at 40 FR 11347, Mar. 11, 1975; 59 
FR 40214, Aug. 8, 1994]