USDEC, working in close coordination with local counsel, the Mexican industry as well as the U.S. and Mexican governments, helped secure critical corrections to the scope of products subject to Mexico's new front of pack labeling requirements (Mexican Official Standard NOM-051-SCFI/SSA1-2010) to alleviate the trade problems that this regulation created for many U.S. dairy exports over the past few weeks.

Mexico issued today three sets of clarifications regarding NOM 051 expressly confirming that bulk products/raw materials intended to be used as ingredients into final products and inputs not intended for the final consumer (such as products imported for food service facilities or for further processing) are not subject to the fulfillment of the requirements of that regulation at the point of its entry to Mexico. The new scope of the regulation is set to take effect immediately. To make use of these provisions, exporters will need to include on the import declaration (pedimento de importación) the identifier key "EN" in addition to the complement corresponding to "ENOM", "U" or "E", per SAT guidelines. Please check with your Mexican importers and brokers to ensure the identifier is properly included in the import documentation.

Bulk products

The Mexican authorities have now confirmed that the intent of NOM-051-SCFI/SSA1-2010 is to establish the commercial and health information that must be included in the labeling of the pre-packaged products intended for the final consumer for domestic and foreign products that are marketed in Mexico's territory, as well as to determine the characteristics of the information and establish a system of front labeling. Furthermore, they confirmed that the regulation specifically stipulates that it does not apply to bulk products.

To that end, the authorities determined that bulk product is defined as:

• Product placed in a container for its transportation, susceptible to be weighed, counted or measured in the presence of the consumer at the time of sale.
• Products susceptible to be weighed, counted or measured in the presence of the final consumer.

The specific criteria may be found in Spanish at the following link.

Raw materials

The Mexican authorities define raw material as any ingredient, including additives, used in the manufacture, processing, preparation or treatment of food or non-alcoholic beverages. The substances or products that are used as raw materials in the manufacture, elaboration, preparation or treatment of food or non-alcoholic beverages, are excluded from the scope of the NOM, since they are not available for consumption by the final consumer at the point of sale.

The specific criteria may be found in Spanish at the following link.

Inputs not intended for the final consumer (food service)

The scope of application of NOM 051 is limited to only prepackaged foods and beverages destined directly for the final consumer. Therefore, when products are contained in a package that does not constitute the final and definitive container that will be presented to the consumer, they are not required to fulfill the requirements of NOM 051. Inputs that are used in the manufacture, processing, preparation or treatment of food or non-alcoholic beverages, and products that are processed or used by restaurants, cafeterias, taverns or similar, are excluded from the application of the NOM.

The specific criteria may be found in Spanish at the following link.

USDEC staff in Mexico and Arlington will continue to work with government and industry partners in the U.S. and in Mexico and provide further updates to members as more information becomes available.

Please contact Jaime Castaneda at jcastaneda@usdec.org or Oscar Ferrara at oferrara@usdec.org if you have questions.