P-A EXPIRATION DATING GUIDELINES INCLUDE ADVICE FOR HELPING RETAILERS TO PRICE PRODUCTS WITHOUT OBSCURING EXPIRATION DATES; TENTH VOLUNTARY GUIDE FROM P-A

The Proprietary Association's voluntary expiration date guidelines urge OTC marketers to consider the "needs of the wholesalers, pharmacists and other retailers for price stickering" when designing the expiration marking for labeling. The seven-point guidelines, adopted unanimously by the P-A board at its May 10 meeting, point out that expiration dating should be placed on labels so that retailers can mark the price of a product easily without obscuring the expiration information. The P-A guidelines suggest two ways that marketers could address price marking: (1) "placement of the expiration date and lot number near the UPC symbol, space permitting," or (2) placement of the expiration date and lot number on the bottom endflap. P-A President Jim Cope noted that at the association's December marketing seminar in New York "one of our major retail customers suggested ways that P-A member companies could further assist him and other retailers in making certain that expired goods are not on the retail shelves." The retailer suggested that "whenever possible, we consider placing the UPC symbol, expiration date and lot number on the same endflap and pack that end down in the shipping carton." That would make it easier for the retailer to stamp the price on the end packed up without disturbing the expiration date. Cope pointed out that the expiration guidelines address retail trade concerns arising from recent actions by New York and New Jersey in which the states have charged retailers with selling out-of-date goods. P-A 1986-87 Chairman James Luther (Sterling) explained that the guidelines fit P-A's policy of preventive voluntary action. Luther said: "You know P-A in its traditional way has tried to head off problems by facing up to them and working out voluntary guidelines that diffuse the problems." The P-A board decided, Luther said, "that the confusion that existed in the trade and the consumer's mind because of the difficulty and legibility of some expiration dating, the lack of uniform placement of it, and sometimes the date gets stickered over with pricing. We were beginning to get consumer complaints, and some states' attorneys general were quizzing us about what we were doing." The expiration guidelines are the tenth such program adopted by P-A. The association adopted a voluntary inactive ingredient labeling guideline in 1984. Cope indicated that P-A may also be looking to a guideline approach to resolve the aggressive interpretation of slack-fill regulations in California. Cope reported that "negotiations are currently under way" among P-A, the Cosmetic, Toiletry & Fragrance Association (CTFA) and four groups of California officials to develop enforcement guidelines. P-A has been concerned about varying slack-fill interpretations by the 58 California counties. Cope said that P-A and CTFA have been cooperating "wonderfully" on the guidelines. He predicted that a "denouement" to the slack-fill situation would be forthcoming "in the next few weeks." He noted that CTFA's legal challenge in 1986 was not accepted by the courts and that P-A investigated legislation but found that it would have taken a major expenditure of effort "to have any hope of passage." The association notes that one bill in California to control slack-fill enforcement remains "on the one-year fast-track." Cope told the annual meeting: "If the [slack-fill] guidelines are not acceptable, we may have no real alternative but to seek legislative clarification of the law." In addition to advice on locating expiration dating for retailer convenience, the expiration guideline has six other points. The guidelines urge marketers to "review the expiration dating on their OTC packaging in relation to: Legibility (type size, quality of printing or other application); Location in an area not overlapped by other label copy (such as bar codes); Identity statements (such as Exp 6/89, Exp June 89, Expires 6/89); Other packaging features such as end seals on shrink wraps to make sure that they do not interfere; Emerging technologies such as improved debossing techniques and ink-jet and laser printing systems; Effective internal corporate controls on the expiration dating programs." In the preface to the seven points, P-A further advises consumers periodically to "review the contents of their medicine chests, and discard products whose dates have expired." The association pointed out that "it is a rare OTC indeed which loses its potency quickly after [the expiration date]. Rarer still would be the OTC medicine whose safety would be compromised in this way."