Exporting Middle East food packaging: 3 special compliance considerations—ESMA/GCC/Saudi SFDA—printer’s biggest pitfall: missing Arabic label content

In 2025, food printing companies in Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu began receiving orders from the Middle East—food clients in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar needed packaging. On the surface, this is simply “translating Chinese into Arabic,” but in reality, 80% of printing companies had not clarified the three types of compliance boundaries before accepting orders: UAE ESMA standards, GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) general standards, and Saudi SFDA (Food and Drug Authority) requirements—if a company fails to comply with even one of these three sets of standards, the entire batch may either be held up at customs clearance or be ordered to be removed from supermarket shelves.

Category 1: UAE ESMA — 3 Mandatory Requirements for Food Contact Materials

ESMA (Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Metrology) is the national standards authority of the UAE. Since 2021, it has enforced EU-level standards for food-contact packaging. It has three specific hard requirements:

Real Case: A Brand's Date Gift Box Was Returned by Customs

In November 2024, a printing factory in Yiwang, Zhejiang, produced date gift boxes for a Dubai customer using domestically sourced ordinary ink. After the goods arrived at the port, they were spot-checked by ESMA, which found that the ink contained 0.8% dibutyl phthalate (DBP), exceeding the ESMA standard (≤0.1%). The entire batch of 8000 gift boxes was returned, and the printing factory paid 230,000 yuan in compensation.

Printer's error:

Type II: GCC General Standard—Three Basic Requirements Common to the Seven Gulf Countries

GCC(Gulf Cooperation Council)is the unified standard for the seven Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Yemen). Food packaging standards issued by GSO(Gulf Standardization Organization)are applicable across all seven countries:

Real Case: Arabic Label Printed in the Wrong Position, Resulting in Rework of 8,000 Gift Boxes

In March 2025, a Shenzhen printing company produced red date gift boxes for a Saudi customer. The Arabic label was printed on the bottom of the box, but GSO 1943 requires Arabic to appear on the “primary display panel” (the side consumers see first). When the boxes were placed on shelves in Saudi supermarkets, they were found to have the Arabic in the wrong position and were ordered to be removed from sale by the Saudi Ministry of Commerce. The printing company was forced to rework all the gift boxes, incurring a loss of 350,000 yuan.

Printer error: The Arabic label was printed on the bottom/side/back instead of the main display face. This rule is stricter than the EU requirement, as the EU permits Arabic on secondary faces.

Category Three: Saudi SFDA—Three Additional Food Requirements

The Saudi SFDA (Saudi Food and Drug Authority) is an independent regulatory authority in Saudi Arabia that adds 3 stricter requirements to the GCC framework:

Real Case: Unauthorized Halal Logo — 20,000 Gift Boxes Destroyed

In August 2024, a printing factory in Guangzhou was producing date gift boxes for a Saudi customer. The customer sent a “Halal” logo and instructed the factory to print it directly. Without verifying whether the logo had been authorized by SFDA, the factory printed 20,000 pieces. After the goods arrived in Saudi Arabia, SFDA conducted a random inspection and determined that the logo constituted an unauthorized “counterfeit Halal mark.” All 20,000 gift boxes were destroyed, the printing factory paid 180,000 yuan in compensation, and the customer also lost its Saudi distribution rights.

Printer’s error: The Halal logo must be accompanied by a certificate issued by an SFDA-accredited Halal organization (a Saudi local organization or an international organization recognized by SFDA). Before accepting an order, the printer must obtain the Halal certificate number from the customer rather than relying solely on the logo image.

3 Essential Arabic Label Placement Requirements

All three standards specify the exact placement of Arabic labels. These are the 3 positions where printing plants are most likely to make mistakes:

3 Steps for Printers to Self-Check Before Accepting Middle East Orders

The compliance costs for Middle East food packaging are approximately 5-8% of the total order value (testing fees + documentation fees + translation and notarization fees)—lower than in Europe and the United States, but higher than in China. If the customer is unwilling to cover these costs, the printing plant should ideally decline the order; otherwise, if any stage goes wrong later, the losses could reach 200,000-500,000.

Further Reading