Packaging and labelling requirements for vaping products

Labelling requirements for vaping substances

A label must be securely attached to the product pack or carton. The table below outlines the required information for product labels:

Mandatory information for vaping product labels
Information requirement	Description
Ingredients list	Names and quantities (in mg) of vaping substance ingredients, including flavours. Should include common ingredient names rather than a full chemical breakdown of the substance.
Volume or weight of substance	Expressed in mL or mg, as appropriate. It is preferred that vaping substances in: liquid form are expressed in mL solid form the weight is expressed in mg.
Manufacturing batch number	Enables traceability in case of product recalls.
Manufacturer’s (or importer’s) name and contact details	Must include company or person who has notified the product in New Zealand – along with address, phone number and email.
Product expiry date	Expressed as M/YY, MM/YY, M/YYYY or MM/YYYY.
Ratio of propylene glycol to vegetable glycerol (PG:VG ratio)	Expressed as PG:VG (or as a percentage). The product notification should reflect the PG:VG ratio as it appears on the label.
For substances containing more than 3% alcohol	Must include the words “contains alcohol.”
For substances containing nicotine	Nicotine concentration (also referred to as freebase nicotine concentration) must be expressed in mg/mL.
For substances not containing nicotine	Must state either “non-nicotine” or “zero nicotine.”
Safety of use instructions	Instructions for storage, refilling, and disposal. May be included in an insert or leaflet inside the packaging (consider this option if the label lacks space for this information).

Warning messages on packages

All vaping products containing nicotine must display a warning message relating to the harmful effects of using a vaping product.

What the message must say

Warning message must appear in both English and te reo Māori and read:

“This product contains nicotine, which is a highly addictive substance.”
"He nikotīni kei roto i tēnei mea, he matū tino whakawara”.

Placement and formatting requirements

The warning message must:

be displayed on both the front and back surfaces of the package;
be displayed in the centre of each of those surfaces
be aligned parallel to the product’s brand or variant name
be printed in black Helvetica typeface on a white background
be in a font size that occupies the largest possible proportion of the reserved area (reserved area = at least 32% of the package’s total surface area when closed).

Additional packaging requirements

For cylindrical packaging:

the container may have only one label
the warning message must be centred left-to-right on the front surface when the container is orientated horizontally, so the message can be read.
the label must occupy at least 32% of either:
- one half of the cylindrical surface area, or
- the container’s label surface area - whichever is greater.

For elliptical packaging:

label(s) should be centred horizontally on the long side of the ellipse for readability.

Prohibited images on packaging

Vaping products and smokeless tobacco product must not resemble or depict:

food items
cosmetic products
toys
cartoons.

This prohibition applies to:

the product itself
the packaging of the vaping or smokeless tobacco product
any inserts included inside the packaging.

Example: a vaping substance label may indicate a strawberry flavour, but it cannot feature an image of a strawberry, as depictions of food are prohibited.

Definition of a package

Vaping products can be sold with or without a box:

A package means a pack, carton, wrapping, or other container in which a regulated product is sold at retail.