Label rules › Brazil

Brazil food label requirements: ANVISA RDC 429/2020 and RDC 727/2022

Packaged food sold in Brazil is labelled in Portuguese under ANVISA’s RDC 727/2022 on the labelling of packaged food and, for nutrition, RDC 429/2020 and Normative Instruction 75/2020. The new nutrition table and the front-of-pack magnifying glass have been mandatory since October 2022; every transition period has now ended.

Checked: 29 October 2026

Mandatory items

Every food label: RDC 727/2022

Sales name, ingredient list, allergen statement (“ALÉRGICOS: CONTÉM …”, “PODE CONTER …”), lactose and gluten statements, net contents, origin, the maker’s or importer’s name and address, batch, expiry date, and preparation and storage instructions where needed. The Consumer Defence Code asks for clear, accurate information in Portuguese on every product.

The magnifying glass: RDC 429/2020

Food above these limits shows the black-and-white magnifying glass “ALTO EM” with the nutrients, in the upper half of the front panel:

1. solids, per 100 g: added sugar 15 g or more, saturated fat 6 g or more, sodium 600 mg or more;
2. liquids, per 100 ml: added sugar 7.5 g or more, saturated fat 3 g or more, sodium 300 mg or more.

The nutrition table

Black on white, with values per 100 g or 100 ml and per serving, and %VD; total and added sugars are declared. Placed together on one face, never on a face hidden by a fold or a seal.

Why the rules look like this

Brazil writes its health choices onto the label, often after a fight in court:

1. 2003 — Law 10.674 makes every food say whether it contains gluten, a victory for coeliac associations.
2. 2004 — wheat and maize flours must be enriched with iron and folic acid, to cut anaemia and neural-tube defects; the ingredient list says so on every bread and biscuit.
3. 2015 — RDC 26 brings mandatory allergen statements after a citizens’ campaign, “Põe no Rótulo” (Put it on the label), led by parents of allergic children.
4. 2020–2023 — RDC 429 introduces the magnifying glass; when ANVISA postponed a deadline in 2023, a consumer group took it to court and a judge restored an earlier one. Brazilian deadlines can move both ways — follow the latest decision.

Seasons that sell packs

Easter is Brazil’s great packaging season: chocolate eggs hang in tunnels of supermarket shelves, each in a printed wrap and box with its full label. Festa Junina in June sells sweets such as paçoca and pé-de-moleque; Children’s Day on 12 October and Black Friday drive toys and gift sets.

Who answers for the label

The maker or importer, and — under the Consumer Defence Code — every link of the supply chain jointly, so the shop can be sued alongside the brand.

The designer and the printer are not named by these laws — but a contract can make them pay for the reprint. Keep the client’s written approval of the final copy; Drint’s review link records it.

If the label is wrong

ANVISA and the state health surveillance can seize and recall products and fine companies under Law 6.437/1977, with fines that reach R$1.5 million for the most serious cases; PROCON consumer agencies fine shops and brands under the Consumer Defence Code for misleading labels. Brazilian courts also hear collective suits brought by consumer groups, which is how the magnifying-glass deadlines were decided.

Who else loses, beyond the fine

A wrong label costs more than its fine, and the cost travels down the chain:

1. The shopper — an undeclared allergen can put someone in hospital; that is why recalls for allergens move fastest.
2. The brand — a recall notice with its name stays online for years, and retailers may delist the product.
3. The importer and distributor — stock held at the port or in a warehouse, storage fees, relabelling labour, sometimes a whole container sent back.
4. The shop — products immobilised or pulled from shelves in the middle of a season.
5. The printer — a reprint at its own cost if the contract says so, and a lost client either way.
6. The designer — the reprint blamed on the artwork, unless the client’s approval is on record.

How the magnifying glass and the table are laid out

The magnifying glass goes in the upper half of the principal panel, in one of the models of IN 75/2020 (one, two or three nutrients), at the size its annex gives for the panel’s area, with no text or picture over it. The nutrition table is black on white, with Arial-type letters at the minimum sizes of IN 75/2020; on small packs it may be horizontal or linear. Lactose and gluten statements sit just after the ingredients or the allergen statement.

Mistakes, and a check before printing

The usual problems: an old-format table with “%VD based on a 2,000 kcal diet” and no added sugars; the allergen statement in normal letters; “NÃO CONTÉM GLÚTEN” missing on a gluten-free product (Law 10.674/2003 asks for one or the other); the magnifying glass placed in the lower half.

1. Work out the magnifying glass with the RDC 429/2020 limits.
2. Place the official model in the upper half of the front, at its size.
3. Lay out the 2020 table, black on white, with added sugars.
4. Set “ALÉRGICOS: CONTÉM …” in bold capitals right after the ingredients.
5. Print “CONTÉM GLÚTEN” or “NÃO CONTÉM GLÚTEN”, and the lactose statement where it applies.

Worked example: a 200 g box of butter cookies

Made in Vietnam and sold in Brazil, the pack reads, line by line (the client’s own names and numbers replace those in brackets):

1. [ALTO EM AÇÚCAR ADICIONADO E GORDURA SATURADA] — lupa na metade superior, se aplicável
2. BISCOITO AMANTEIGADO
3. Ingredientes: farinha de trigo enriquecida com ferro e ácido fólico, manteiga, açúcar, ovo, sal, fermento químico bicarbonato de sódio.
4. ALÉRGICOS: CONTÉM TRIGO, LEITE E OVO.
5. CONTÉM LACTOSE. CONTÉM GLÚTEN.
6. Conteúdo líquido: 200 g
7. Importado por: [razão social, CNPJ, endereço] · Origem: Vietnã
8. Lote: [ ] · Validade: [dia mês ano]
9. Informação nutricional por 100 g e por porção de 30 g

Why it reads this way

Wheat flour sold in Brazil must be enriched with iron and folic acid, so the ingredient reads so; the lupa follows the added sugar and saturated fat per 100 g.

How Drint helps

Three kinds of people make packs for Brazil with Drint, and each needs something different:

Free, no account: the barcode generator, the mm to inches converter and the paper sizes table.

1. A business with its own brand — Drint has no label kit for Brazil yet, so the checklist on this page is your check before export. See the pack in 3D before it is printed, send the design to the person who must approve it with a review link, and hand the printer one CMYK PDF/X-4 with the die on its own layer, so nobody retypes the label.
2. A household business — start from a ready dieline cut to your exact box or bag size instead of paying for a die drawing, use your own photos on 3D mockups for your online shop, and keep the mandatory text exactly as you wrote it: Drint never translates or rewords a client’s copy.
3. A designer — lay out several markets from one design, each with its own language and items, keep every client’s approvals in one place, and show finished packs on a portfolio page at drint.io/your-name.

Laying it out in Drint

1. Drint has no label kit for Brazil yet: add a text block for each item of the table above, in the order the law lists them.
2. Paste the client’s copy as they wrote it — Drint does not translate or reword it.
3. Place official marks (symbols, numbers, logos) from the authority’s own files at their stated size; export the CMYK PDF/X-4 with the die on its own layer for your printer.

Official sources

1. ANVISA — Rotulagem de alimentos
2. INMETRO — Conteúdo nominal

Drint checks this label while you design, for 47 countries: see how the label-law check works.

Lay out the label in Drint

Questions

A summary written to design packs, not legal advice. Check RDC 727/2022, RDC 429/2020 and IN 75/2020 on ANVISA’s site, and INMETRO’s net-content rules, before printing.