The technical sheet template. The sheet, not the explanation of the sheet.
Whoever is looking for a technical sheet template already knows what to write. What they are missing is the sheet to write it on.
Here is the blank form, in four files: Italian and English, Word and PDF. The Word file is filled in and reused, the PDF is printed and attached. There is no email to leave and no form to fill in first: they are direct links.
The fields aren't invented. Twelve come from the mandatory particulars of Article 9 of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011, that is, from what will have to appear on the label. The others are the ones the buyer asks for to do their own sums: logistics, codes, residual shelf life.
The field that decides is the date. A sheet without an update line generates three different versions in the same inbox, and sooner or later someone sends the old data on an order that has already left.
This piece is part of the guide to export operations for the small food producer and provides the object. The reasoning on how to fill in each field, and on the five mistakes that stop a request, is on the twin page: the technical sheet in English, field by field.
The template, to download
Four files, the same fields in all four. The Word file is the working copy: you fill it in once, save it under the product name and update it when something changes. The PDF is the copy that goes out, because it arrives exactly as it left and nobody edits it by mistake.
| File | When you need it | Link |
|---|---|---|
| ItalianWord, to fill in | The internal copy, the one you work on and from which all the others come. |
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| EnglishWord, to fill in | The version to keep aligned with the first. Same fields, same order, so they can be compared at a glance. |
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| ItalianPDF, to print | For those who prefer to fill it in by hand the first time, or to circulate it in the company without risking changes. |
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| EnglishPDF, to attach | The copy you send to the buyer when the sheet is closed and must not change again. |
The files are free. There is no form in front of them, we don't ask for an address and we receive no notification when someone downloads them. If you need them with your logo, open the Word file and add it: it is an ordinary document.
Just one thing, if you like: once you have filled it in, send it to us. We reread it through the eyes of whoever will receive it on the other side and tell you what is missing, before a buyer does.
Why the buyer has the right to ask for it
The technical sheet isn't a commercial courtesy. Article 8(8) of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 places on the supplier an obligation to inform 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 must be able to build a compliant label for their own market, and only the producer has the information to do it. An incomplete sheet doesn't waste their time, it prevents them from complying. That is 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 letter a to letter l. They are the backbone of the template, because they are the information that will end up on the pack anyway and that the buyer therefore needs in writing.
The list: name of the food, list of ingredients, Annex II allergens, quantity of certain ingredients, net quantity, date of minimum durability or use-by date, storage conditions and conditions of use, name and address of the operator, country of origin where required, instructions for use, alcoholic strength for beverages above 1.2% by volume, nutrition declaration.
In the template these fields are in sections 1, 2, 3 and 4. They are non-negotiable: if one is missing, the sheet comes back with a question, and every question is one more round of emails between two different time zones.
The fields the law doesn't require and the buyer does
Sections 5 and 6 of the template don't come from an obligation. They come from the fact that the buyer, to say yes, has to close a set of sums: how much a pallet weighs, how many cartons fit on it, what duty they pay, how much time they have left to sell it. These are numbers you know and they don't.
| Field | Where it comes from | What happens if it is missing |
|---|---|---|
| AllergensAnnex II | Labelling obligation, Article 9(c) of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011. |
It is the first field that gets read. Without it, the sheet isn't even assessed: it is a safety filter, not a commercial one. |
| Residual shelf lifeguaranteed at shipping | No obligation. It is imposed by the supply contracts of almost all large-scale retail. |
Stating only the total duration forces them to ask, and the request gets lost in the round of questions. |
| Palletisation datacartons, layers, height | No obligation. The buyer needs it to calculate transport per unit. |
Writing «to be defined» is like asking them for a quote without telling them how much the goods weigh. |
| Customs codeHS, six digits | No labelling obligation. It determines the duty they will pay. |
The duty enters their profit and loss before the order. Without the code, the sums don't close. |
| Unit and carton GTINthe barcode | No obligation. Large retailers' systems ask for it. |
Without the code the product doesn't get into the system, and so doesn't get onto the shelf. |
Word or PDF: which one to send
The Word file stays with you. It is the live copy, the one updated when a supplier, a yield or a format changes, and the only one anyone writes on. Keeping one per product, in a single folder, avoids the situation where two people in the company fill in two different sheets for the same item.
The PDF is the copy that goes out. It reaches the buyer exactly as you closed it, can't be changed by mistake when opened, and attaches to an email without formatting problems. Whoever receives a Word file often opens it, writes a note in it and sends it back: at that point there are two documents and neither is the right one.
A single version, with a date on it
At the top of the template there are three cells: last update, version, document owner. They look like bureaucracy and they are the part that saves the most time, because they let you and the buyer know whether you are looking at the same sheet without comparing it line by line.
The practical rule is one: when a piece of data changes, the version changes and the date changes, and the old sheet disappears from the folder. An archive with four versions of the same sheet sooner or later produces a wrong send, and old data discovered once the goods have left becomes a dispute, not a mistake.
The opposite consequence holds for the buyer too: a dated sheet tells them there is someone behind it who keeps documents in order, and in a negotiation between strangers that is the first piece of information that gets across. According to SACE's analysis of Italian SMEs and export, 57% of small Italian manufacturing businesses export: the competition on the buyer's desk is made of companies like yours, and details of this kind make the difference.
When the sheet is no longer enough
With three products and one market, the template filled in by hand holds up for years. The point where it breaks is always the same: when the products become twenty, the markets three, and each market asks for a variant of the same sheet. At that point the problem is no longer filling in, but keeping eighteen versions aligned.
That is when the data should be taken out of the files and put in a place that keeps it together, with the language versions generated from the same base, so that correcting a value corrects it everywhere. With a constraint that matters more than the technology, written in Ethics: the system prepares and flags, but no document reaches a buyer without a person having read and approved it. On a technical sheet that signature isn't a formality, because the allergens field doesn't allow a later correction.
Before getting there, it is worth going through the folder of shipping documents, where the same goods must be described in the same way on invoice, packing list and proof of origin. The technical sheet is the first place that description gets written, and it is from there that the other documents copy it.
This page gives you the blank sheet. If you fill it in and send it to us before a buyer sees it, we tell you which fields are missing and which, as written, would send the request back with a question. It costs nothing.
A person replies, the same one who then builds the systems, within 24 hours, with a reading of the situation and not with a quote. You write from here, and one line is enough.
Questions and answers
Where can I download a technical sheet template for a food product?
On this page, in four free files: Italian Word, English Word, Italian PDF and English PDF. They are direct links: there is no form to fill in first and no email to leave.
The fields are the same in all four files, in the same order, so the Italian and English versions can be compared at a glance.
What fields should a food technical sheet contain?
Twelve come from the mandatory particulars of Article 9 of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011: name, ingredients, allergens, quantity of certain ingredients, net quantity, date of minimum durability, storage conditions, responsible operator, origin where required, instructions for use, alcoholic strength above 1.2% by volume, nutrition declaration.
On top of the mandatory ones come those the buyer asks for and no rule requires: residual shelf life guaranteed at shipping, palletisation data, customs code, GTIN of the unit and of the carton.
Is the technical sheet required by law?
There is no rule requiring a document by that name. There is, however, Article 8(8) of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011, which obliges whoever supplies food to another operator to give them «sufficient information» so that they can meet their own obligations.
The technical sheet is simply the practical form in which that obligation is fulfilled. The buyer who asks you for it isn't asking a favour: they are asking for what they need to stay compliant.
Is it better to send the sheet in Word or PDF?
The Word file stays in the company and is the working copy, the one that gets updated. The buyer gets the PDF, because it arrives exactly as it was closed and can't be changed by opening it.
Whoever receives a Word file tends to annotate it and send it back: from that moment there are two different documents for the same product, and neither is the official one.
Do you need a different technical sheet for each country?
The commercial sheet stays one, 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 pays to keep a single base with the data and generate the language versions from there, so that a correction applies to all of them. When products and markets multiply, the problem stops being filling in and becomes keeping the versions aligned.
Notes on sources
- Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, consolidated text: Article 8(8) for the obligation to inform between operators and Article 9(1) for the list of the twelve mandatory particulars. The quotation in the text is the official English wording of the same article.
- SACE, analysis of Italian SMEs and export: 57% of small manufacturing businesses export.
- The four downloadable files are produced by us and don't reproduce any private standard. The food safety standards buyers apply (for example those required by large-scale retail) have copyrighted texts and aren't reproduced here: where needed, ask the buyer directly for the reference.
- This page doesn't publish a «standard» residual shelf life percentage required by importers, because that threshold is contractual, changes from chain to chain and no public source sets it.
You write the sheet's data only once.
The template solves the first product and the first market. When products multiply and each market asks for its own version, the work is no longer filling in but keeping things aligned. With Itria we start from the outside to build custom digital systems for exporters. For you that translates into more requests, fewer losses and less manual work. Write us a line about what weighs on you. We take the first step: what a buyer sees when they look you up, and what we found there. Even if we don't end up working together.