Agriculture and Food Translation

The second feature is how document-heavy exporting is. For a product to enter another country a whole chain of documents is required, from the label to the health certificate and from the specification to the analysis report, and every one of them has to meet the language and the formal expectations of the target market.

The typical set of documents

Food and agriculture documents fall into three groups – labelling, export and the technical file – and each calls for a different level of accuracy and of formal presentation.

Which of these documents call for certified translation is set out in our document guide. Omitting or mistranslating the name of an allergen or an additive on a label is an error that cannot be accepted, on health grounds and on compliance grounds alike.

Where does the terminology risk concentrate?

The first difficulty in food terminology is the standard naming of additives and allergens. These names have accepted equivalents and free translation is not acceptable; naming an additive wrongly makes the label non-compliant. The second difficulty is nutrition claims: expressions such as “low fat” or “no added sugar” have defined conditions attached to them in most markets and cannot be used as one pleases.

The third risk is numerical data and units. Portion sizes, values per unit and systems of measurement differ from market to market, and a single error in a unit throws out the whole nutrition table. Established usage also has to be preserved for product names and for products carrying a geographical indication.

The regulatory context

Food labelling and export are bound both by domestic food legislation and by the rules of the target market. The headings to keep in view in translation are these:

• In Türkiye, food labelling is subject to the rules set within the framework of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Turkish Food Codex, and the mandatory particulars are expected to be carried across in full.
• For export, the labelling and allergen declaration rules of the target market must be observed in addition.
• For nutrition and health claims, only expressions that meet the defined conditions may be used.
• On certificates, it is important that official wording is rendered with its accepted equivalents.

These headings set out the general framework; the concrete requirements differ for each product and each target market, and should be verified against the relevant official sources.

Managing labels across several markets

The hardest aspect of food exporting, in translation terms, is that the same product is subject to different labelling requirements in different markets. A declaration that is mandatory in one market may be required in another form elsewhere; the conditions attached to a nutrition claim may vary from country to country. Label translation is therefore not a matter of language alone but of alignment with the rules of the target market.

The second difficulty is consistency. Across a portfolio of many products, the same additive, the same allergen and the same ingredient must be named in the same way on every product; otherwise both consumer confusion and a compliance problem arise. A central termbase establishes that uniformity across catalogues running to hundreds of products.

Labels are also revised often; a change of recipe, a change in legislation or entry into a new market sends the label back for redrafting. Once the template and the terminology are settled, such updates are completed quickly by working only on the fields that have changed, without translating from scratch.

Why specialist translation is needed

In food translation, a translator without knowledge of the field can render an additive name approximately and leave the label non-compliant. A team that knows the standard naming conventions, the conditions attached to nutrition claims and the chain of export documents preserves both the accuracy that health requires and compliance. A glossary specific to the product range guarantees consistency across catalogues covering many products.

The final step in label translation is usually a compliance review: a check on whether the translated label carries the mandatory particulars in the form the target market expects. That step calls for an eye that looks beyond linguistic accuracy.

Nor can the accepted equivalents of additive and allergen names be left to guesswork. Naming an additive wrongly or incompletely has serious consequences for consumer health and for compliance alike. A team that knows the logic of food labelling checks these details as a matter of routine.

How we work

On the food side, the working relationship begins by mapping out the product portfolio and the target markets at the start. Once it is clear which product is going to which market, the label templates and the sets of mandatory particulars are built accordingly. When a new market or a new product is added, only the parts that change are worked on within the existing arrangement, and the process moves faster.

For firms exporting many products to many markets, the framework model is the right fit: the label templates and the glossary are settled once, and new products are handled quickly within that framework. A single certificate or report, on the other hand, can be run on a project basis. Our scope of service is set out on the translation services page, and for an export portfolio we suggest the quote form.

The information here is general in nature; current requirements should be verified before you apply. Ask the competent authority to confirm them before making an application.