Food Safety Symbols
Marks about handling rather than diet: the food-contact glass and fork, microwave and oven icons, freezer stars, use-by against best-before, and the signage a food business displays. India gets its own section, because the FSSAI mark works differently.
The glass and fork
A wine glass beside a fork means the material is intended to come into contact with food. In the EU it comes from Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004, which requires the mark or the words for food contact where the intended use is not obvious. It describes the container, not the food inside it, and says nothing about heat. A food-safe tub can still buckle in a microwave.
Heating and cold marks
| Mark | How it is drawn | Who sets it | What it obliges |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microwave safe | A box with wavy lines, or three wavy lines | The manufacturer. No regulator fixes the design | Nothing standardized, so the wattage and time beside it matter more than the picture |
| Oven safe | An oven outline, often with a temperature | The manufacturer | The number is a ceiling, not a recommendation |
| Freezer safe | A snowflake | The manufacturer | The container tolerates freezing. Not a statement about shelf life |
| Freezer star rating | One to four stars, on appliances and compartments | Appliance standards | One star is around -6 C, two around -12 C, three around -18 C. Four means -18 C or colder plus the capacity to freeze fresh food, not only store it |
Use-by and best-before are not the same instruction
Only one of the two is about safety. In the UK and EU, use-by is the safety date: selling food after it is an offence, and it should not be eaten past that date even when it looks and smells fine. Best-before is quality, and food past it can legally be sold and eaten. Food can be frozen up to and including the use-by date, because the date describes chilled storage. In the United States most of these phrases are not federally regulated, so sell by and best if used by are manufacturer conventions, with infant formula the exception.
Conventions that look official and are not
- Color-coded chopping boards. Red for raw meat, blue for raw fish, yellow for cooked meat, green for salad, brown for vegetables, white for dairy and bakery. An industry convention, not law, and suppliers vary it.
- HACCP has no symbol. It is a system of hazard analysis with written records. A logo reading HACCP certified belongs to whichever certifier issued it, not to a regulator.
- Food hygiene rating stickers. The 0 to 5 rating is issued by the UK local authority. Display is mandatory in Wales and Northern Ireland and voluntary in England, so a missing sticker in England proves nothing.
India
The FSSAI logo with the license number must appear on packaged food and at licensed premises, and the number can be checked against the register. Alongside it sit the mandatory vegetarian and non-vegetarian dots, covered on vegan symbols on food. The mark is a licensing statement: the business is registered and subject to the rules, not a certificate that a batch was tested.
Related pages
- Food packaging symbols for the recycling and material codes on the same pack
- Food allergy symbols and food symbols for the rest of the label