Gift Baskets & Sets
Photo 260184099 © Serguei Levykin | Dreamstime.com - file: dreamstime_l_260184099.jpg
Gift baskets and sets have some unique labeling challenges. When the basket or set is created prior to sale, it is labeled as a single item for sale. However, the net content statement and the ingredient declaration must both represent ALL of the items that are in the set.
Net Contents
The net contents may be on a label applied to the package or on a hang tag, but it must be on thefrontwhere the consumer can see and read it.
Statement of Contents
It must list out all of the items contained in the basket/set, so the consumer knows what they are potentially buying. Often that requires using not just weight or volume, but also numerical count.
For example, for the gift basket pictured above, the net content statement might be:
Contents:
- 2 bath bombs, net wt 3.5 oz / 100 g each
- 1 soap, net wt 5 oz / 141 g
- 1 soap, net wt 2 oz / 56 g
- 1 bath salts, net wt 9 oz / 255 g
- 1 massage oil, 8 floz / 236 ml
- 1 wooden scoop
Text Size
As with all products, the size of the principal display panel determines the text size required for the net contents. For a gift basket or set, the principal display panel is determined by the whole basket or set, not the size of the label or hang tag.
Imagefile: PDP-Example.jpg
Once you know the size of the principal display panel in square inches, you can determine the necessary size of the text:
| PDP Size | Text Size |
|---|---|
| 5 sq in or less | 1/16 inch |
| 5 to 25 square | inches 1/8 inch |
| 25 to 100 square | inches 3/16 inch |
| 100 to 400 square | inches 1/4 inch |
| More than 400 square inches | 1/2 inch |
See Measuring Text Size for details on how to measure the text size.
The text size, because it’s based on the size of the whole basket or set, is going to seem very large.
The net contents statement must be placed in the in bottom 30% of the label or hang tag.
Ingredient Declaration
If the gift basket/set contains cosmetics, there must be an ingredient declaration that lists the ingredients for each product.
For example:
Lavender Bath Salts
INGREDIENTS: SODIUM CHLORIDE, MAGNESIUM SULFATE, LAVENDER ESSENTIAL OIL, LAVENDER FLOWERS.
Lavender Massage Oil
INGREDIENTS: ALMOND OIL, AVOCADO OIL, CASTOR OIL, LAVENDER ESSENTIAL OIL, LAVENDER FLOWERS.
Where there are two or more items of the same kind, but only differing slightly, you can list them individually, or you can combine the ingredients and place them in the following order:
- Ingredients present in all the products, listed in descending order of predominance (based on the cumulative amount in all products),
- Ingredients present in one or more products but not all, identified by which product(s) contain the ingredient,
- Color additives used in any of the products, combined into a single list; it does not need to specify which product(s) contain which color(s).
Soap
INGREDIENTS: OLIVE OIL, COCONUT OIL, PALM OIL, WATER, SODIUM HYDROXIDE, PEPPERMINT OIL (PEPPERMINT SOAP), LAVENDER ESSENTIAL OIL (LAVENDER SOAP), PEPPERMINT LEAF (PEPPERMINT SOAP), LAVENDER FLOWERS (LAVENDER SOAP), CHROMIUM OXIDE GREENS, ULTRAMARINES, MICA.
Business Name & Address
As with all products, your business name and address is required on the package.
Gift Wrapping
The net contents statement and ingredient declaration are only required on gift baskets and sets that are packaged prior to the consumer's purchase.
When the consumer purchases products and you provide an additional service of put them into a gift basket for the customer, that’s not the same thing. That’s more like gift wrapping. The customer has already had the opportunity to read the labels of the products and select the ones they want. You don’t have to then put that same information on the outside of the gift basket/set you make for them.
