Registration comes before the artwork, and the label is approved as part of it.
One: is it a pesticide
Does the product kill, repel, mitigate or control a pest, or regulate plant growth? If yes, it is a pesticide and the whole federal apparatus applies. If it only feeds, it is a fertilizer and the governing rules are largely state ones.
Two: register it
A pesticide may not be distributed or sold unless registered. That is a process with data requirements and a timeline, and it is the longest single item in this sequence by a wide margin.
Three: the label is part of the registration
Which means the words are approved rather than drafted. Changing a direction for use or a precautionary statement after approval is not a copy edit.
Four: run the toxicity questions against 157.22
Acute oral, dermal and inhalation, eye damage and skin irritation. If any criterion is met and the labeling recommends or permits residential use, the product goes in child resistant packaging.
Five: choose a container that can pass 165.25
DOT Packing Group III provisions for a non-hazardous product. A continuous coherent pour for a liquid at five gallons or less. And for a dilutable product, 99.99 percent removal of each active ingredient on the prescribed test.
Six: lay the label out against the panel
Nine elements at 6-point or larger on a contrasting background, uncrowded, with the ingredient statement on the front. That is a measurable area and it rules out the smallest containers for a complex product.
Seven: for a fertilizer, go and read your states
Fertilizer labeling and registration are largely state matters, with a guaranteed analysis, registration with each state department of agriculture, and tonnage reporting. Selling into thirty states is thirty conversations.
Why registration first
Because everything downstream, the label, the container, the closure and the launch date, depends on an approval you do not control the timing of. Designing the package first means waiting with it finished.
References
40 CFR 156.10, general labeling requirements for pesticides. The label carries the name, brand or trademark; the name and address of the producer or registrant; the net contents; the EPA registration number; the EPA establishment number; the ingredient statement; hazard and precautionary statements; directions for use; and the use classification. Required text must be "clearly legible to a person with normal vision", set in 6-point or larger type, on a clear contrasting background, not obscured or crowded, and placed so as "to render it likely to be read and understood by the ordinary individual under customary conditions of purchase and use". The ingredient statement is normally required on the front panel.
law.cornell.edu40 CFR 157.22, child-resistant packaging for pesticides: "Unless exempted under 157.24, a pesticide product must be distributed and sold in child-resistant packaging" where it meets a toxicity criterion and "the product's labeling either directly recommends residential use or reasonably can be interpreted to permit residential use". The toxicity criteria include an acute oral LD50 of 1.5 g/kg or less, an acute dermal LD50 of 2000 mg/kg or less, an acute inhalation LC50 of 2 mg/litre or less, irreversible eye damage or corneal involvement persisting 21 days or more, and tissue destruction or severe skin irritation at 72 hours.
law.cornell.edu40 CFR 165.25, standards for nonrefillable pesticide containers. A container for a non-hazardous pesticide complies with the DOT provisions applicable to a Packing Group III material. A container of 5 gallons or less holding a liquid pesticide must "allow the contents of the nonrefillable container to pour in a continuous, coherent stream" and minimise dripping. A rigid container of 5 gallons or less for a dilutable product must achieve "at least 99.99 percent removal of each active ingredient" under the prescribed test procedure.
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