Alcohol/Beers/Best practices
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Each product that is entered into Open Food Facts has a set of fields. What should be entered in these field is not always clear and ambigious. In order to limit this confusion the best practice is listed here. The principle is that only information available on the labels, bottle and capsule might be used. Use the language selected on the OFF Edit Product page. If you use another language to enter fiels, precede it with a lanuage specifier. Thus on the french edit page we would enter en:Wheat Beer.
Images
Images are center to OFF, as they allow to check and enhance the already entered information. So take photo's of the front label, the backlabel and the necklabel on the bottle. In addition if the bottles come in a pack, take pictures of all sides of the pack as well. Take of not having any reflections on bottles, as it might make the text unreadable.
Product name
This is the name used on the main label. Often this is the same as the brand, so an extra specification is needed. For instance for (see product 5410228158424 m) the main name is Hoegaarden, but below is specified it concerns Wit - Blanche;
Common name
There is some confusion what to enter here. The best is to enter the product category found above/in the ingredient list. On the backlabel of (see product 5410228158424 m), it specifies Wheat Beer.
Quantity
The contents of the bottle, often in cl. Not much confusion.
Packaging
What is entered here is not always clear. It can be the elements of the productpackage and the make of these elements. If both are entered, it should be clear which element goed with which make. Look also at the bottle itself. In order to reduce the confusion we can do:
- Bottle:green glass / Bottle:brown glass / Bottle:transparant glass. and sometimes even more detailed Bottle:brown glass:GL 72 (see product 5410228158424 m);
- Capsule:metal;
- Box:paper
Brands
This is usually found on the main label. One can also add the owner of the brand. For instance for (see product 5410228158424 m) this would be InBev Belgium;
Categories
This can be a confusing field. One can distinguish between three types of categories:
- productlabel categories - any productcategory that is found on the label, such as Belgian beer, Bière d'abbaye, etc. It might double what is written under productname or common name, but that does not matter;
- derived categories - these are categories derived by Open Food Facts. These categories are based on product name, common name and the productlabel categories. These derived categories use the part of the taxonomy that includes beer. So you can leave these out as they will be available automatically; (Unfortunately you can not see how OFF interpreted your input at the moment);
- personal categories - any category you think that the beer should be in and is not to be found on the label. Thus there might be alcoholic beverages that are beer, but are not notes as such on the productlabel.
Labels, certifications, awards
Many labels can be found the productlabel. It is not always clear what title one should use to describe the logo. Use the english titles given below to limit misunderstanding:
- Green Dot
- Tidyman Wastebasket
- Tidyman Recycle
- Glass bin
- GL 72
- No driving
- Not advised for pregnant women
- AB
- EU Organic
- Pant A
- Recycle
- Caution
- No Ecotax
- Gluten Free
- 2340.fr
If you enter any of these ttile, take note of the current languag of your edit page. If it is not english it is advised to add en: in front of the title, to show you entered the english title.
Awards
There are some logo's related to the appreciation of a beer. If the label is found on the product, add it. And if possible you can add the year, the category and the prize. For example: World Beer Awards:2012:Best Asian Lager:bronze
- Martin's Finest Beer Selection;
- World Beer Awards;
- World Beer Cup;
- European Beer Star;
- Recognized Belgian Abbey Beer (wikipedia - french);
Origin of ingredients
Manufacturing or processing places
This would be the address of the brewery.
EMB code
Only enter the EMB-code, such as EMB 29293G for (see product 3760010140017 3760010140017 m);
Link to product page on the official site of the producer
This can be found on the label nowadays, although it does more than often point to the producer site. Just enter it.
Best before date
Enter this, so any change in labeling and/or packaging can be tracked. If you can not find it on the label, check out the bottle itself.
City, state and country where purchased
Note that this NON-productlabel information. Just enter where you have bought it.
Stores
Add the store name(s) where you bought the product.
Countries where sold
A bottle often has multiple languages, specific logo's or hints to indicate the countries where the product is sold. In order to help determining the country, find here a table of some commonly used languages/indicators and logo's. These are taken from some very international beer labels.
Country | Short | Beer | Ingredients | Water | Wheat | Barley Malt | Caution | Other |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Belgium | BE | Bier / Bière | Example | Example | Example | Example | unknown | unknown |
Denmark | DK | Oel | Example | Example | Example | Example | unknown | unknown |
Finland | FI | Olut | Example | Example | Example | Example | unknown | unknown |
France | F | Ingrédients | Bière | Eau | Froment | Malt d'Orge | Consigne | unknown |
Germany | DE | Example | Example | Example | Example | Example | unknown | unknown |
Greece | GR | Example | Example | Example | Example | Example | unknown | unknown |
Hungary | H | Example | Example | Example | Example | Example | unknown | unknown |
Italie | IT | Birra | Example | Example | Example | Example | unknown | unknown |
Netherlands | NL | Ingredienten | Biere | Water | Tarwe | Gerstemout | Statiegeld | unknown |
Norway | NO | Example | Example | Example | Example | Barley Malt | unknown | unknown |
Poland | Example | Example | Example | Example | Example | Barley Malt | unknown | unknown |
Spain | ES | Cerveza | Example | Example | Example | Barley Malt | unknown | unknown |
Sweden | SE | Example | Example | Example | Example | Barley Malt | unknown | unknown |
United Kingdom / Great Britain | GB / UK | Beer / Ale / Lager | Ingredients | Water | Wheat | Barley Malt | Caution | drinkaware.co.uk |
United States | USA | Beer | Ingredients | Water | Wheat | Barley Malt | Caution | unknown |
Ingredients list
This can be found on the label. Sometimes it is hidden in the text, so read everything.
Traces
Allergy ingredients are specified separately as "contains" for instance.
Nutrition Facts Not specified
Leave this unchecked, as the alcohol percentage is a nutrition fact and always found on the label.
Serving size
Usually this is the same as the bottle size (25 or 33cl);
Nutrition Facts
Add the alcohol percentage here, the other facts are not often found.
On french bottles one sees the number of alcohol units a serving contains. Select the per serving radio button and create a new line with Unité alcool and fill in the number.