by Scott Pillsbury | Oct 10, 2025 | Food Beverage
You’ve done it. You’ve perfected your grandma’s secret sauce, found the perfect sustainable packaging, and are ready to share your creation with the world. The last step is the label—the beautiful, eye-catching design that will make customers grab your product off the shelf.
As your label printing partner, we understand that a beautiful design is only half the battle in a regulated industry like food and beverage. An incorrect label can lead to costly recalls or fines. While you have the final responsibility for designing and approving a compliant label, we believe in being an informed partner. We stay familiar with current regulations because the more we understand your world, the better we can serve you as your printer.
The FDA’s Must-Haves
Based on recent FDA guidance, every food label has a few non-negotiable elements. Ensuring these are correct on your final design is a critical step before you send your files to print.
- Statement of Identity: The common or usual name of the food.
- Net Quantity of Contents: How much product is inside, listed in both U.S. and metric units.
- Name and Place of Business: The name of the manufacturer, packer, or distributor.
- Ingredient Declaration: A list of ingredients in descending order by weight.
- Nutrition Facts Panel: Required unless the product qualifies for a specific exemption.
- Allergen Declaration: An explicit declaration of the nine major food allergens, such as milk, wheat, peanuts, and sesame.
Common (and Costly) Mistakes to Avoid
The FDA emphasizes a few key areas during inspections. A simple mistake in one of these areas can cause significant headaches for a food company. Keep an eye out for these common violations:
- Undeclared Major Allergens
- Misuse of “Gluten-Free” Claims: If you make this claim, the product must be tested and verified to contain no more than 20 ppm of gluten.
- Incorrect or Missing Nutrition Facts
- False or Unauthorized Health/Nutrient Claims
Navigating these rules can feel overwhelming. That’s why it’s so important to work with a dedicated legal or regulatory expert to get your label right before it comes to us for printing. As your printing partner, we have deep experience in the food industry, which means we understand your complexities. We’re committed to printing your final, approved design with the quality and precision your brand deserves.
Disclaimer: The information in this blog post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. We are label printing experts, not lawyers. Please consult your legal counsel to ensure your labels fully comply with all applicable laws and regulations.
by Scott Pillsbury | Jul 3, 2019 | Business Tips, Food Beverage
Building and sustaining a thriving business for 92 years is no accident. It takes deliberate effort and intention. Business excellence and systems go hand in hand. Attention to detail is the key, both in the actual production of your labels, and in how we run our business. Here are some things we do very well – all to serve our customers better.
Financial Focus
Each month, we have a complete financial review with an outside CPA. This is considered overkill by some for a business our size, and it is an added expense, but we want certainty about our direction and progress. Having an outside voice to review the financial progress each month is comforting. Our accountants are excellent – check out their website here. What we do for customers is hard, and we always want to know we are going the right direction.
Detailed Monthly Inventory
Each month, we count and measure all 550+ rolls of label stock. With a barcode label on each roll and a unique ID, it is easier than ever to have an almost real-time look at the stock we have on hand. Our vendors are very good and they generally delivery quickly, but having the right inventory buffer is critical to help us respond to customer demand.
Business Excellence and Systems
None of this is very helpful if it is so far after the fact that we can’t remember anything that happened. Today (3rd of the month) we had this full financial review before noon. This is a massive advantage. Being in the moment and having quick feedback helps us keep a finger on the pulse of the business.
Customer Focus
All of this work and attention to detail is designed to delight the customer. Ultimately we want our customer’s customer to be delighted and buy their beer, wine, food product – we want to be an extension of our direct customer’s marketing and branding efforts. We want our labels (their labels!) to stand out on the shelf and help them grow their business. We can only do that effectively if our business is running well. There is more to running a label business than just putting ink on paper. These systems are a big part of that.
Call Us Today – We Can Help
If you want to deal with a family owned, eco-friendly label company in Portland, please call us. We have a thriving business that is growing and profitable. If you produce a high quality product in a bag, box, or bottle, it is very likely that we could help you upgrade your branding with outstanding labels. Our systems and business excellence allow us to help more people each day. Call us!
by Scott Pillsbury | Jun 21, 2019 | Beer Wine Spirits, Food Beverage
Powerful wine labels connect. The wine is the ultimate product – and good wine will bring them back. The first sale relies on the label. Labels matter more than ever in the crowded retail market. You only have a brief moment to make a connection, and your label is the primary vehicle to do that.
The recent article by Cyrus Azari – ‘The Power of a Well Crafted Label‘ talks about this in detail. He makes several great points, including this:
You better have a sleek and sexy label design that is visually appealing! Here’s the kicker, it has to be appealing towards who you want to buy that product.
Cyrus Azari, Merchant 23 blog
The key point here is that the label has to be appealing to your target audience. If you don’t know who you are selling to, then any label will work. But if you do (and you better in this competitive category) then you need a label tailored EXACTLY to the consumer you are trying to reach.
- Young professionals trying to make a good impression
- Experienced wine lovers that belong to 3 wine clubs
- Men/Women/African Americans
- Converts from beer or spirits
- Chefs that want a wine to compliment a meal
All of these are valid and worthy segments to target, and all of them could potentially need a different label. Defining your ideal customer first is the best way to start your label design – if you can bring this to your graphic designer, it will make the process much more productive.
There really is no perfect label for your wine – there is only the perfect label that connects with the consumer you are targeting. A label is a visual representation of your brand – it is the promise to the consumer about how they will feel while enjoying your product. The wine has to fulfil the promise made by the label, but until you know the actual promise you are making, it is very hard to hit the target.
Think about your target audience and your brand promise – once those are well defined, the label will design itself. In the label design process, we would be happy to collaborate with your designer to discuss paper options, foil and embossing, and special die cut shapes to bring your vision to life.
Call us today. We can help!
by Scott Pillsbury | Jul 20, 2018 | Customers/Examples, Food Beverage
We Label The Winners
Two of our favorite customers were recently honored in their respective industries for the best product in the nation! In national food competitions and blind beer tasting, Great Notion and The Bitter Housewife both came out on top. We are proud to call these companies great customers, but also friends of Rose City Label. We label the winners!
Great Notion Ripe IPA
Great Notion has been very, very popular recently. They have won numerous national and international awards. Their small batch beer releases sell out quickly when shared on social media. This award is further proof of their success. Paste Magazine recently spent 17 days doing blind tasting on the best 324 IPAs in the country – 17 days of beer tasting! The results are summarized here, but the punchline is that out Great Notion was voted #1 out of all these beers! Among other things, the reviewers said:
it’s the beer that everyone can agree on. It’s the beer that everyone wants to drink more of. And in these 324, that was Great Notion’s Ripe, hands down. … Ripe is simply everything that you want in a NE-IPA. Loaded up with Citra, it presents a hugely tropical hop nose, with notes of mango, papaya, pineapple and more musky, exotic fruit notes that are difficult to put your finger on.
Way to go Great Notion – we are proud to have you as part of the Rose City Label family. Cheers!
The Bitter Housewife Cardamom Bitters
The next big winners were Genevieve and Dan Brazelton founders of Improper Goods – The Bitter Housewife. Their Cardamom Bitters not only won their individual category in the Specialty Foods Association national competition, they were actually picked as PRODUCT OF THE YEAR in all categories! Read the full story by clicking here. This is a huge accomplishment for a relatively small company that is competing with all types and sizes of business around the United States. Way to go!
Call Us Today
Do you want to be labelled by the company that labels big winners like this? We label winners and we want to label you, too. Call us today for a free consultation to see how we can help your product stand out in a crowded market.
by admin | Dec 26, 2017 | Beer Wine Spirits, Customers/Examples, Food Beverage
Cascade Brewing has engaged with Murmur Creative to update their brand in 2017. A full label redesign was part of that process and now the branding quality matches the amazing beers. This is a case study on how to elevate your brand.
History
Rose City Label has a very long history with Art Larrance – one of the true Oregon craft beer pioneers. Portland Brewing was founded in 1986
by Art and his high school friend and fellow craft beer legend, Fred Bowman. Read the full story here. Way back in the days of Portland Brewing, we were lucky enough to supply sheetfed, glue applied labels for many of their early beers. We still have a bottle of this Thunderhead Cream Stout in our office; these were truly the beginnings of craft beer in Oregon.
Rebirth as Cascade Brewing
By 1998, Art and his trusted friend Ron Gansberg were pioneering again, starting a small brewery in the basement of the Racoon Lodge on SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway. Their reputation grew for top quality barrel aged sour beers, and again Rose City Label was lucky enough to print labels for the beers they bottled.
Engaging with Murmur Creative
Art’s son Tim Larrance returned to the family business after a successful career with national and international beverage brands. As VP of Sales and Marketing, part of his job was to bring the packaging and branding up the level of the beers. They needed to elevate their brand to keep up with the growing Cascade reputation. This was not an easy process – it is always a balancing act to keep the link to the heritage while moving forward to attract new customers. Luckily, Cascade engaged with Andrew Bolton and the talented team at Murmur Creative. The Murmur team listened and helped Cascade articulate their message and bring the updated brand to life. Thankfully, they were also very good to work with on the printing side. They knew the process and its limitations and maximized every aspect of the label design.
Three Tiers – separate but aligned
Among the many good things Murmur did with the new designs, they built an integrated system to include different beer styles and price points into one cohesive family. The labels are distinct (see below) but with the Cascade branding front and center, it is easy to see that they are all part of one product group.
Maximizing the Medium – Size, Paper, Foil Stamping
The team at Murmur did the research to really understand our printing process and capabilities. This allowed Cascade to get the most impactful label at the most affordable price. The label size was optimized to run most efficiently on our printing press while still providing the desired look on the bottle. The three tiers were separated to ensure the top level products have the special embellishments to set them apart:
- Tier 1 – High Quality Paper, Full Color Printing
- Tier 2 – Premium Paper, Full Color Printing
- Tier 3 – Premium Paper, Full Color Printing, Foil Stamping
By considering the available features early in the design process, Murmur was able to execute Cascade’s vision with no surprises on press. This preparation is what makes Murmur (and Cascade) such a good partner for Rose City Label.
Thank You Cascade and Murmur!
We are privileged to work with many great brands, but few have the total package – great products, great design, and wonderful people making it happen every day. If your product could benefit from a branding facelift in 2018, please call us today. Together with partners like Murmur, we can help you elevate your brand and get your product to pop off the shelf.
Cheers!
by admin | Dec 8, 2016 | Customers/Examples, Food Beverage
Eating right is difficult – you need to read Nutrition Food Labels. Reading food labels should be a great way to learn about what you are eating, right? Yes and No – you need to read the labels, but you need the ‘food label decoder’ to make sure you are getting the straight scoop.
This article from the New York Times has a great quiz to test your food knowledge – click here to view the full article. The article is based on an excellent new book – click here to learn more about Devour.
What are they looking for?
There are several great tips in this article – here is one of the best – What are your consumers looking for on Food Labels? Consumers are looking for foods with these attributes, according to the Food Marketing Institute.
- 41 percent of respondents sought foods labeled “low sodium.”
- 37 percent looked for “no artificial ingredients”
- 29 percent sought “no/low fat”
- 20 percent sought “certified organic.”
What about Sodium?
This is in line with recent research indicating that while Americans are generally improving their overall dietary quality, sodium is a big area where we fall short. And, an estimated 80% of sodium consumed is actually added to the food by food manufacturers and restaurants. Read the full article in JAMA Internal Medicine here.
How does this Affect Your Products?
We never advocate our food customers to chase the latest trends. You need to produce your core products – the items that align with your mission and core values. If ‘low sodium’ isn’t a part of your current offerings, consider them in future product design. Don’t throw out your current recipes and start over. Pay attention to the research as you evolve, but don’t try to be something you aren’t – that is a ‘recipe’ for watered down, passion-free products. Yuck!
What is a Brand Owner to Do?
Follow these tips and you will be able to communicate your value directly to your consumers. Give them clear, compelling reasons to pick you when they are selecting a product in your category:
- Stay true to Your Authentic Brand – never vary
- Learn the intricate details of Nutrition Food Labels terminology
- Create new products with consumer research findings in mind
- Design and print labels to highlight your best attributes
- Keep your products mix and your label design fresh and clean
Need Help?
If you need help with label design and printing on your Nutrition Food Labels, call us today. Keep reading this series of posts to learn more, and tap our many years of expertise to help you along the way.
