Not a translation job. Arabic is mandatory in the Gulf, dates cannot be stickers, and the UK and US measure their minimum text differently.
More than the language. Counted from the published requirements, the Gulf standard GSO 9 makes Arabic mandatory and forbids applying production and expiry dates as a sticker, while the UK measures its minimum at a 1,2 mm x-height and the US measures its panel in points. A translated file is not a compliant pack.
The Gulf: three rules that change the layout
GSO 9 is the standard that governs the pack, and its 2022 version is the one in force, with Arabic as the reference language. The same regulation can carry a different word in each market: Article 15(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 as it applies in the UK reads “Without prejudice to Article 9(3), mandatory food information shall appear in English”, and the word “English” was substituted into it on 31 December 2020.
Arabic is mandatory, and any other language may appear only alongside it, which means your second language is a layout partner rather than a replacement. The product name and the net quantity have to sit in the same field of vision, so they cannot be split across a fold or a seam. And production and expiry dates cannot be applied as a sticker: they have to be printed directly or embossed, which moves the date from artwork into production planning.
There is a further condition worth knowing before you plan a sticker workaround for the Arabic text itself: that route exists but carries strict conditions, so it is a decision to make with your importer rather than in a design review.
The UK and the US measure different things
Both set a floor under mandatory text, and the two floors are not comparable.
| What is set | UK | US |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum size measure | x-height, 1,2 mm | Point size and an absolute floor |
| Panel body text | Not expressed as a panel | 8 point, with 6 point for column headings and footnotes |
| Absolute floor on mandatory text | Cannot be hidden, obscured or cut | 1/16 inch letter height |
| Small pack relief | Nutrition exemption exists for very small businesses | Floor drops to 4,5 point, capitals permitted |
Read the bottom row before you assume your small pack is stuck. Both systems have a relief route, and both attach conditions to it.
Why the strictest market sets the layout
The temptation is to design for your home market and adapt later. Reversing that order is cheaper.
Design the mandatory block at the largest requirement among the markets on your list, then let the easier markets sit inside that block. The alternative is a second artwork round per market, and a range where the same product looks like two different products depending on where it was bought.
What this does to your production plan
Two of the Gulf rules are not artwork decisions at all.
Direct printing or embossing of dates means your production line has to carry that capability, or your co-packer does. Arabic as a mandatory language means a typeface that carries the script properly, which is a licensing and a design question at the same time. Settle both before the first market artwork is approved, because retrofitting either one is a new print run. MarkaWorks raises the date question with the co-packer rather than with the designer, since that is where the answer lives.
Order of decisions, and who makes each one
Four decisions, and three of them are yours before anyone draws.
- Name the markets in priority order, because the strictest one sizes the block.
- Name the languages each market requires, since that decides how much of the panel is spoken for.
- Name the smallest pack you will sell, because that is where every floor bites first.
- Hand all three to the designer, who decides the layout inside the constraint rather than discovering it.
A gap in our own record
Our record carries no recycling label scheme for the UAE or Saudi Arabia, and inventing one would be worse than saying so. Packaging material regulations exist in both, and the UAE has a single-use plastics ban, but a labelling scheme comparable to the ones in the UK or California did not turn up.
If a supplier tells you there is one, ask which scheme and which document, then check it against the current standard before it reaches your artwork.
What to bring to a first conversation
Your market list in priority order, your importer’s name in each market, and the smallest pack in your range. MarkaWorks builds the mandatory block against the strictest market on your list first, since the block is the constraint everything else fits around, and a block sized late is the most common cause of a second artwork round on your side.
The mandatory block on a MarkaWorks project
MarkaWorks builds the mandatory block against the strictest market on your list first, and raises the date-printing question with your co-packer rather than with the designer, since that is where the answer lives. We ask for the market list in priority order and the smallest pack before drawing. That stage is described on the packaging and product design page.
