3 Mandatory Markings on Pet Food Packaging Labels: Applicable Animal Species / Guaranteed Analysis Values / Imported Chinese Labels — Which 3 Documents Should a Printer Request First When Accepting Pet Food Orders?

In March 2026, a cat food brand sent us a sample of an 8-ton white cardboard laminated bag. The layout looked clean. We photographed the front of the bag and sent it back to the customer for confirmation.

Two days later, the customer replied with a slightly frustrated message:

“The words ‘For Cats’ on this bag are too small. Our supermarket says they cannot be read. Also, the protein content measured 38.2 in this batch, but you printed 39.5, which is last month’s figure. Both need to be changed.”

The words “For Cats” were 4.8 mm high, and we had measured them to confirm that they were acceptable. The guaranteed analysis values were provided by the customer and had not been printed incorrectly. However, both items touched on a line we had not yet confirmed with the customer: whether the finalized label had already been filed with the competent authority.

The artwork supplied by the customer was a revised version prepared by their internal marketing department and had not gone through the filing process. The version we printed was, in fact, the old version they had filed the previous month—not printed incorrectly, but printed too correctly, down to the point of being outdated.

For printers working with pet food packaging labels, there are three things to learn: which three categories of markings are mandatory, which customer document is the one that may be printed, and which wording should be changed when a label revision is requested to minimize cost. The following examples are drawn from orders we have handled.

First Category of Mandatory Marking: Applicable Animal Species and Life Stage—This Section Determines Which Rules Apply to the Bag

Many people believe that a pet food label simply says “cat food” or “dog food.” Actual requirements are considerably more detailed and must cover at least four dimensions: animal species, applicable life stage, whether the product is a complete compound feed, and the product category name.

There is a trap unique to printing plants: the main image is a design responsibility, not a printing responsibility, but legal liability may still fall on the printing stage.

We handled an order for dog food bags with a layout prepared by the customer’s design department. A very cute cat appeared on the front, while the side panel stated “Suitable for dogs at all growth stages.” The design team believed that the “suitable for cats and dogs” selling point would make for good artwork.

Before printing, we would not proactively check whether the animal shown in the main image matched the applicable animal species. This was not included in our checklist, and the customer had not asked us to verify it. After the bags were produced, however, a channel partner scanned the product and found that the filing identified it as dog food, so the entire batch was returned.

Our current practice is to add a separate field to the sample approval form requiring the customer to confirm in writing that “the animal depicted in the front image matches the applicable animal species”. This requires only one line and is far less expensive than a rejected order.

Font size is another issue. Label requirements specify a minimum height for label text, which translates into approximately slightly over 6 pt in printing. Registration must not fall below this level. When the customer says, “Enlarging ‘For Cats’ would look better,” we cannot simply enlarge those two words. We must reflow the entire layout, because this field is aligned to the same baseline as the adjacent product category name and net content. Enlarging one element locally causes the entire page to lose its alignment.

Second Category of Mandatory Marking: Guaranteed Analysis Values Table—The Key Question for Printers Is Who Determines These Figures

A pet food label includes guaranteed analysis values such as crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, moisture, ash, calcium, and phosphorus. Although this section appears to be data rather than a marking, it is the section most likely to cause disputes and the section most likely to be casually altered by customers.

Guaranteed analysis values have two characteristics:

• They reflect the actual level of the particular batch, not a fixed formula. The crude protein content of the same cat food may differ by 0.6 percentage points between spring and autumn batches.
• The values printed on the label are standard or guaranteed values, and actual production must not fall below them.

A common customer practice is to provide the printer with figures taken from the previous batch’s COA and ask for them to be printed as-is. This causes no problems when raw material prices are stable, but it can create problems when protein raw material prices rise or the proportion of fishmeal is adjusted: the figure printed on the label is too high for the batch to meet.

Our plant handles this by moving the guaranteed analysis values section from the “design artwork” stage to the “production order” stage: finalize the layout first and insert the figures at the end. When the customer places the order, they provide the current batch’s COA, and the printer confirms it once 24 hours before production starts. If the figures change, only one line needs to be edited rather than a new plate being prepared.

This approach has a prerequisite: the field for this section must have sufficient space in the layout. We have seen customer artwork that reserved space for the crude fiber line based only on the width of the current text. When the actual figure changed from “8.5%” to “13.8%,” the line overflowed and overlapped the explanatory text below it.

Therefore, this section should be laid out according to the longest possible value. Long values such as “≥40.0%” for crude protein and shorter values such as “≥28.0%” can differ in width by nearly a factor of two.

Another detail from the printer’s perspective is that guaranteed analysis values are usually presented in a table. If the figures in the table are printed using multiple spot colors—for example, magenta for the numbers and black for the table lines—registration shifts can make the figures appear blurred. Requirements specify the legibility of text within tables, so critical data such as guaranteed analysis values are best printed in single-color black. The additional cost is limited, while readability and risk management both improve.

Third Category of Mandatory Marking: Imported Chinese Label—this Set Requires a Complete Replacement Rather Than an Additional Sticker

Imported pet food and domestic pet food follow two different logic systems. Domestic products list the name and address of the manufacturing enterprise and the production license number. Imported products instead require the name and address of the overseas manufacturing enterprise, its overseas registration number, and the name, address, and contact information of the importer.

We have handled two imported pet food orders, one for a cat treat and one for a dog snack. In both cases, the brand supplied design artwork from an overseas factory. The bilingual master layout was provided, while the Chinese version was typeset by our printing plant.

For imported products, printers most commonly encounter problems in three areas:

The phrase “corresponding to the foreign-language label” frequently causes problems in practice. In the master layout supplied by an overseas factory, the ingredient table on the foreign-language label had 12 lines, while the Chinese layout had only 10. This was not an omission: Chinese is more compact, so the line counts could not align naturally.

Our approach is to use the Chinese version as the basis for reverse-engineering the foreign-language version: first, the brand completes and finalizes the Chinese label and files it. We then list every information item on the Chinese label and send the list to the overseas factory, which reformats the foreign-language version according to the list and returns the final artwork. The two versions are then naturally aligned.

If the sequence is reversed, an additional round of manual verification is required. Every revision to the foreign-language version must then be checked again. After three revisions, the process is usually abandoned, and the two versions submitted still do not align.

When a Printer Accepts This Type of Order, Which 3 Documents Should Be Requested First?

These 3 documents determine whether the bag can be released for sale, and the sequence must not be changed:

First: the finalized label that has already been filed with the competent authority, not a version revised by the marketing department. The filing receipt should be reviewed, or at least a written confirmation stating “This version has been filed” should be obtained. Both pet feed labels and Chinese labels for imported pet food involve filing procedures. Without this document, the printer is assuming the risk of a mismatch with the filed version.

Second: the accurate written form of the qualification numbers. For domestic products, this is the pet feed production license number; for imported products, it is the overseas manufacturer’s registration number. These identifiers have fixed formats, and neither the number of characters nor the position of the letters may be incorrect. They must also appear in the prescribed locations. Our plant asks the customer to provide the numbers in the body of an email, rather than copying them from the artwork, to prevent an incorrect character from being copied from a rendering.

Third: the current batch’s COA for the guaranteed analysis values. This document determines the final figures printed in the table and whether the section can be left open until the production stage.

The process begins only after these 3 documents have been obtained: reserve layout space for the longest possible values → produce samples → obtain the customer’s signed approval → verify the COA 24 hours before production starts → conduct post-print sampling inspection. The “signed sample approval” step is particularly indispensable in the pet food industry because changing even one character in label text that is subject to filing requirements means replacing the entire version.

Our plant also adds a step to the packaging: we circle the filing number and the section containing the guaranteed analysis values and ask the customer to focus their signatures on these two areas when approving the sample. Other layout issues can be corrected quickly, but changes to these two areas require a new version.

Further Reading

• Practical Guide to GB 4806 Testing Items for Food-Contact Packaging: 5 Frequently Blocked Items + 3 Remediation Methods for Failures—Pet food bags must also comply with relevant food-contact requirements. This article breaks down the testing items.
• 3 Real Boundaries of Packaging Specifications: Dimensional Standards / Material Models / Process Inspectability—Which 3 parts of the customer’s order form most often differ from actual production?
• 3 Types of “Third-Party Testing” Reports Cited by Customers for Food-Grade Gift Box Orders—Which report should a printer require before accepting an order: QS / CoA / commissioned testing?
• Real Data from 6 Packaging Testing Methods: Compression / Drop / Vibration / Stacking / Temperature and Humidity / Permeability—How to inspect finished bags.
• 3 Compliance Checkpoints for Packaging Exported to the United States: What FDA, Prop 65, and CPSIA Each Regulate—A compliance map for pet food imported through the United States.