The mark on the product and the package

The requirement

Effective one year after 14 August 2008, the manufacturer of a children’s product shall place permanent, distinguishing marks on the product and its packaging, to the extent practicable, that will enable two separate things.

What the manufacturer must be able to tell

The location and date of production of the product, cohort information including the batch, run number or other identifying characteristic, and any other information the manufacturer determines will help ascertain the specific source of the product by reference to those marks.

What the purchaser must be able to tell

The manufacturer or private labeler, the location and date of production, and cohort information including the batch, run number or other identifying characteristic. The purchaser’s version does not include the internal traceability, but it does include who made it.

To the extent practicable

The statute includes that qualifier, and the Commission may by regulation exclude a specific product or class of products where marks are not practicable, with alternative requirements consistent with the two purposes above. A 2 mm spacer bead is the obvious case where marking the product itself is a real question and marking the package is not.

Which is why this is a packaging decision

The package is where the mark almost always lands for small findings, so the label layout has to reserve room for a date and lot code that is permanent rather than a sticker that peels. Reserving that space at artwork stage costs nothing; adding it after a print run does not.

Permanent means it survives the product

A code that rubs off a glossy label in a bench drawer has not done the job the statute describes, which is to let somebody holding the item years later work out where it came from. Print method and label stock are part of meeting it.

References