The spec sheet template for a food product. The form to fill in, in Word and PDF.
A food product's spec sheet is the page of data a buyer asks for before ordering: the mandatory label information, storage, logistics. Here's the blank template to fill in, in Italian and English.
Here's the blank form, in four files: Italian and English, Word and PDF. You fill in the Word file and reuse it; you print or attach the PDF. No email address needed, no form to get through first: they're direct links.
The fields aren't made up. Twelve come from the mandatory particulars in Article 9 of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011, in other words from what will have to appear on the label. The others are what buyers ask for so they can do their sums: logistics, codes, remaining shelf life.
The field that matters most is the date. A sheet with no update line breeds three different versions in the same inbox, and sooner or later someone sends out old data on an order that has already shipped.
The template is published by Itria, which builds tailored AI systems for Italian SMEs. For producers who export, it builds the system that fills in the spec sheet and the shipping documents from product and order data, in each buyer's language, and has a person approve them before they are sent.
This piece is part of the guide to export operations for small food producers, and it gives you the actual form. How to fill in each field, and the five mistakes that stall an enquiry, are on the companion page: the spec sheet in English, field by field.
The template, to download
Four files, with the same fields in all four. The Word file is the working copy: fill it in once, save it under the product's name and update it when something changes. The PDF is the copy that goes out, because it arrives exactly as it left you and nobody can change it by accident.
| File | When to use it | Link |
|---|---|---|
| ItalianWord, to fill in | Your internal copy, the one you work on and the source of all the others. |
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| EnglishWord, to fill in | The version to keep in line with the first one. Same fields, same order, so you can compare them at a glance. |
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| ItalianPDF, to print | For anyone who'd rather fill it in by hand the first time, or pass it round the business without risking changes. |
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| EnglishPDF, to attach | The copy you send the buyer once the sheet is final and won't change again. |
The files are free. There's no form in the way, we don't ask for an email address, and we don't get notified when anyone downloads them. If you want your logo on them, open the Word file and add it: it's an ordinary document.
Just one thing, if you like: once you've filled it in, send it to us. We'll read it the way the person receiving it will, and tell you what's missing before a buyer does.
Why the buyer is entitled to ask for it
A spec sheet isn't a commercial courtesy. Article 8(8) of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 puts a duty on the supplier to provide information to the buyer, and puts it like this:
“Food business operators which supply to other food business operators food not intended for the final consumer or to mass caterers shall ensure that those other food business operators are provided with sufficient information to enable them, where appropriate, to meet their obligations under paragraph 2.”
In practice: your buyer has to be able to put together a compliant label for their own market, and only the producer has the information to do that. An incomplete sheet doesn't just waste their time, it stops them meeting their obligations. That's why the request always comes, and comes early.
The twelve fields the label makes mandatory
Article 9(1) of the same regulation lists twelve mandatory particulars, from point (a) to point (l). They're the backbone of the template, because they're the information that will end up on the pack anyway, so the buyer needs it in writing.
The list: the name of the food, the list of ingredients, Annex II allergens, the quantity of certain ingredients, net quantity, best-before or use-by date, storage conditions and conditions of use, the operator's name and address, country of origin where required, instructions for use, alcoholic strength for drinks above 1.2% by volume, and the nutrition declaration.
In the template these fields are in sections 1, 2, 3 and 4. They're non-negotiable: if one is missing, the sheet comes back with a question, and every question means another round of emails across two time zones.
The fields the law doesn't ask for, but buyers do
Sections 5 and 6 of the template don't come from any legal obligation. They exist because, before a buyer can say yes, they have to do their sums: how much a pallet weighs, how many cartons fit on it, what duty they'll pay, how long they'll have left to sell it. These are figures you know and they don't.
| Field | Where it comes from | What happens if it's missing |
|---|---|---|
| AllergensAnnex II | A labelling requirement under Article 9(c) of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011. |
It's the first field anyone reads. Without it, the sheet won't even be considered: it's a safety filter, not a commercial one. |
| Remaining shelf lifeguaranteed at dispatch | No legal requirement. Almost every retail chain's supply contracts demand it. |
Giving only the total shelf life forces the buyer to ask, and the question gets lost in the back-and-forth. |
| Palletisation datacartons, layers, height | No legal requirement. The buyer needs it to work out freight per unit. |
Writing “to be confirmed” is like asking for a freight quote without saying how much the goods weigh. |
| Customs codeHS, six digits | Not a labelling requirement. It determines the duty the buyer will pay. |
Duty goes into the buyer's costings before they order. Without the code, the sums don't add up. |
| GTIN for unit and cartonthe barcode | No legal requirement. Retail chains' systems ask for it. |
Without the code the product can't be entered into their system, so it can't go on the shelf. |
What the law requires in a food spec sheet
No law sets out a spec sheet form, and none dictates its layout. The sheet pulls together on one page what other rules require: first and foremost Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on food information, then the rules on batch codes, on materials in contact with food and on the specific product. These are the six that fill it in.
| Standard | What it puts on the sheet | The text |
|---|---|---|
| Reg. (EU) No 1169/2011Article 8(8) | The duty to give the buyer the information they need for their own label. It's the reason the spec sheet gets asked for in the first place. | |
| Reg. (EU) No 1169/2011Article 9 and Annex II | The twelve mandatory particulars and the fourteen allergens, from cereals containing gluten to molluscs. | |
| Reg. (EU) No 1169/2011Articles 30 and 32, Annex XIV | The nutrition declaration: energy, fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, protein and salt, per 100 g or per 100 ml. Energy is worked out with the conversion factors in Annex XIV, which for fat are 37 kJ and 9 kcal per gram. | |
| Directive 2011/91/EUbatch codes | Food can only be sold with an indication of the lot it belongs to. The spec sheet explains how to read the batch code. | |
| Reg. (EC) No 1935/2004Article 16 | For materials in contact with food, a written declaration of compliance. It's the packaging document buyers ask for alongside the spec sheet. | |
| Product-specific rulesolive oil, for example | For extra virgin olive oil, Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/2104 adds the category wording, storage away from light and heat, and the place of origin on the label. Wine, dairy and meat have rules of their own. |
Spec sheet example, filled in
The template above is blank. This is the same sheet filled in for an extra virgin olive oil in a 0.75 l bottle, the same product as the packing list example. It's a worked example: the company, the brand and the figures are made up; the fields and the rules are real. The PDF has all six sections; below are the fields people most often get wrong.
| Field | In the example | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Legal name | Extra virgin olive oil, with the wording “superior category olive oil obtained directly from olives and solely by mechanical means”. | Reg. (EU) 2022/2104, Article 6. |
| Origin | Italy. | For extra virgin olive oil the place of origin has to appear on the label: Article 8 of the same regulation. |
| Ingredients | No list: a single ingredient, with the same name as the food. | Reg. (EU) No 1169/2011, Article 19(1)(e). |
| Nutrition per 100 ml | Energy 3389 kJ / 824 kcal, fat 91.6 g of which saturates 13.7 g, carbohydrate, sugars, protein and salt 0 g. | Articles 30 and 32. The figures are indicative: 91.6 g of fat for oil at 0.916 kg per litre, at 37 kJ per gram. |
| Kept for | In a cool, dry place, away from light and heat. Shelf life 18 months, with 12 guaranteed at shipment. | Light and heat are required by Article 7 of Reg. (EU) 2022/2104; the remaining shelf life comes from the contract. |
| Logistics | 6 bottles per carton, a 25 × 17 × 33 cm carton weighing 7.494 kg, 15 cartons per layer, 4 layers, 60 cartons on an EUR pallet 146 cm high, about 476 kg. | No rule: the freight forwarder needs it to price the transport. |
| File | When to use it | Link |
|---|---|---|
| ItalianPDF, filled in | The full example, all six sections, to keep next to the blank template while you fill in your own. |
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| EnglishPDF, filled in | The same example with the field names a foreign buyer expects, and the category wording in the official English text. |
Word or PDF: which one to send
The Word file stays with you. It's the live copy, the one you update when a supplier, a yield or a pack size changes, and the only one anyone writes in. Keeping one per product, in a single folder, avoids two people in the business filling in two different sheets for the same item.
The PDF is the copy that goes out. It reaches the buyer exactly as you finalised it, can't be changed by accident when opened, and attaches to an email with no formatting problems. People who get a Word file often open it, add a note and send it back: at that point there are two documents, and neither is the right one.
One version, with a date on it
At the top of the template there are three boxes: last updated, version, and who is responsible for the document. They look like red tape, but they save more time than anything else, because they let you and the buyer know you're looking at the same page without comparing it line by line.
The working rule is simple: when a figure changes, the version and the date change too, and the old sheet disappears from the folder. An archive with four versions of the same sheet will sooner or later produce a wrong send, and old data discovered after the goods have shipped becomes a dispute, not a mistake.
It works the other way for the buyer too: a dated sheet tells them there's someone behind it keeping the paperwork in order, and in a negotiation between strangers that's the first impression that counts. According to SACE's analysis of Italian SMEs and export, 57% of small Italian manufacturers export: the competition on the buyer's desk is made up of businesses like yours, and details like this make the difference.
When the form is no longer enough
With three products and one market, a template filled in by hand will last for years. It always breaks at the same point: when you have twenty products and three markets, and each market wants its own variant of the same sheet. Then the problem is no longer filling it in, it's keeping eighteen versions in line.
That's when the data needs to come out of the files and into one place that keeps it together, with the language versions generated from the same source, so that correcting a value corrects it everywhere. With one rule that matters more than the technology, set out in Ethics: the system prepares and flags, but no document reaches a buyer until a person has read and approved it. On a spec sheet that sign-off isn't a formality, because the allergens field doesn't allow for corrections after the fact.
Before you get there, it's worth looking at the shipping documents folder, where the same goods have to be described the same way on the invoice, packing list and proof of origin. The spec sheet is the first place that description gets written, and the other documents copy it from there.
This page gives you the blank form. If you fill it in and send it to us before a buyer sees it, we'll tell you which fields are missing, and which ones, as written, would get the enquiry sent back with a question. It costs nothing.
You'll hear back from a person, the same one who builds the systems, within 24 hours, with a read of your situation rather than a quote. Get in touch here; one line is enough.
Questions and answers
Where can I download a spec sheet template for a food product?
On this page, as four free files: Word in Italian, Word in English, PDF in Italian and PDF in English. They're direct links: there's no form to fill in first and no email address required.
The fields are the same in all four files and in the same order, so you can compare the Italian and English versions at a glance.
What fields should a food spec sheet include?
Twelve come from the mandatory particulars in Article 9 of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011: name, ingredients, allergens, quantity of certain ingredients, net quantity, best-before date, storage conditions, responsible operator, origin where required, instructions for use, alcoholic strength above 1.2% by volume, and the nutrition declaration.
On top of the mandatory ones come the fields buyers ask for that no law requires: remaining shelf life guaranteed at dispatch, palletisation data, customs code, and GTIN for the unit and the carton.
Is a spec sheet a legal requirement?
No law requires a document by that name. There is, however, Article 8(8) of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011, which requires anyone supplying food to another business to give them “sufficient information” to meet their own obligations.
The spec sheet is simply the practical way that obligation gets met. A buyer who asks you for one isn't asking a favour: they're asking for what they need to stay compliant.
Is it better to send the spec sheet as Word or PDF?
The Word file stays in-house as your working copy, the one you update. You send the buyer the PDF, because it arrives exactly as you finalised it and can't be changed by opening it.
People who receive a Word file tend to annotate it and send it back: from then on there are two different documents for the same product, and neither is the official one.
Do I need a different spec sheet for each country?
There's one commercial spec sheet, with the language adapted. What changes from country to country is the product label, which follows the rules of the destination market and is a separate matter.
In practice it's best to keep a single master set of data and produce the language versions from it, so that one correction applies to all of them. As products and markets multiply, the problem stops being filling in and becomes keeping the versions in line.
Notes on sources
- Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, consolidated text: Article 8(8) for the duty to inform between businesses, and Article 9(1) for the list of twelve mandatory particulars. The passage quoted above is the official English text; the link opens the Italian version.
- SACE, analysis of Italian SMEs and export: 57% of small manufacturers export.
- The four downloadable files are our own work and don't reproduce any private standard. The food safety standards buyers apply (such as the ones retail chains require) have copyrighted texts and aren't reproduced here: where they're needed, ask the buyer directly for the reference.
- This page doesn't give a “standard” remaining shelf life percentage required by importers, because that threshold is set by contract, varies from chain to chain, and no public source fixes it.
You write the spec sheet data just once.
The template sorts out your first product and your first market. When products multiply and every market wants its own version, the job is no longer filling in, it's keeping everything in line. At Itria we start from the outside and build tailored digital systems for exporters. For you, that means more enquiries, fewer losses and less manual work. Drop us a line about what's slowing you down. We'll make the first move: we'll look at what a buyer sees when they search for you, and tell you what we found. Even if we never end up working together.