Got this piece of candy in my stocking at Christmas, and I must say, its food label has been puzzling me. Anyone know why it’s the way it is? I’m particularly concerned about the way they quoted “item” and the expiration date.
Considering the serving size is 0 0/0 oz. I’d have expected the servings per container to be infinity instead of About 0, Of course, according to the package the Net Weight is 0 oz so, I guess that makes sense. An expiration date of 2222, makes perfect sense for a container full of nothing. Based on all that, the fact that the word item is quoted would be the least of my worries.
For Promotion Only
In other words the retailer got it free to give out samples to people.
“FPO” means “For Placement Only”…it’s used by packaging designers (and advertising creative designers) when they put together an initial design. The areas which are shown as “FPO” on that label (the Nutrition Facts, the ingredients list, and the UPC) would be replaced with the actual items in the final design. You use an FPO when you don’t want the person reviewing the initial design to worry about the accuracy of those items – you just want them to react to the overall look of the design. There would then be another round of reviews for the final design, which should contain the accurate Nutrition Facts, ingredient list, and UPC.
(Also, note the “0.00 oz.” weight, and the absurd “best before” date.)
It looks to me as though someone accidentally sent the wrong graphics file to their label printer – that is, they sent an initial design, rather than the finalized design – and no one caught it.
Though, with a “phony” UPC, I have no idea how this would have gotten sold at a store, unless it was in a small store which doesn’t use a price scanner.
My mother likes to frequent this huge candy distributor a few offices down from hers that always has steep discounts on sweets, so that’s likely how she got it. Thanks for the info!
I can make sort of a guess.
At the top it says:
Then at the bottom it says:
Note the “F.P.O” in various places. I checked Wikipedia and found a number of different meanings for it, but one in particular seems relevant.
This label must be one of the rare ones mentioned in that last sentence. Things like the expiration date of 2222 and “Item” are placeholders as are the weight and number of servings. “Item” would presumably end up being “bunny” or, since this was a Christmas gift maybe “Santa” or “snowman”.
In the 80’s we did get promotional give a ways labeled F.P.O. for reps to hand out., but they did have the quantity right. This bag probably was the blank on file being printed.