Standards of identity for food are mandatory requirements that are set by a governing body to determine what a food product must contain to be marketed under a certain name in allowable commerce. Mandatory standards, which differ from voluntary grades and standards applied to agricultural commodities, protect the consumer by ensuring a label accurately reflects what is inside (for example, that mayonnaise is not an imitation spread or that ice cream is not a similar but different frozen dessert). A US trade organization defines the term as follows:

A standard of identity sets out what ingredients a product must contain, which ingredients it may contain, and any requirements of manufacturing. For example, "whisky" is defined as "a potable alcoholic distillate obtained from a mash of
cereal A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, ...
grain saccharified by diastase of malt or by other enzymes and fermented by the action of yeast". It may contain caramel and flavouring. No other ingredients are allowed. If someone were to produce a whisky containing a dye, they would not be permitted to call the product "whisky", since dye is not a permitted additive. Standards of identity are set out in the Food and Drug Regulations. They may be identified by the symbol " ''" following the product name in boldface type. As such, they are official common names for products and no other name can be substituted.

A 2014 lawsuit in the United States illustrated one usage of such regulations. When Hampton Creek implied in its advertising that mayonnaise being marketed by Unilever was not "real" mayonnaise, the latter sued Hampton for defamation and cited the definitions promulgated by the

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...

United States

Each individual

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

within the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

reserves the authority to set standards of identity for foods marketed within that state. In addition, the departments of the

federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

carry authority to set requirements for food products that are offered for

interstate commerce The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and amon ...

. Such standards are issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the

or the

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), commonly referred to as ATF, is a domestic law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and prevention ...

Canada

The

Canadian Food Inspection Agency The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA; ) is a regulatory agency that is dedicated to the safeguarding of food, plants, and animals (FPA) in Canada, thus enhancing the health and well-being of Canada's people, environment and economy. The age ...

issues standards of identity.

Australia and New Zealand

The Commonwealth nations use many of the same terms employed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Food Standards (Australia and New Zealand), ''Food Standards Code'' Food Standards Australia New Zealand, formerly Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA), is the governmental body responsible for developing food standards for Australia and New Zealand.

France

Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée In France, the ''appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (, ; abbr. AOC ) is a label that identifies an agricultural product whose stages of production and processing are carried out in a defined geographical area – the ''terroir'' – and using ...

(AOC), "term of controlled origin" is the French certification granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products.

Italy

Denominazione di Origine Controllata The following four classification of wine, classifications of wine constitute the Italy, Italian system of labelling and legally protecting Italian wine: * ''Denominazione di origine'' (DO, rarely used; ; 'designation of origin'); * ''Indicazione ...

is the Italian quality assurance label for food products and especially wines.

In PDOs around the world

* **

References

Food law