UFI Labelling: Cyklop Needham and EU Ink Compliance

Cyklop Needham continues to track and implement the latest chemical safety legislation, including the EU requirements around Unique Formula Identifiers for hazardous mixtures, because regulatory clarity is a core part of delivering safe, dependable industrial inks to customers across global markets.

You may have noticed 16 digit codes now appearing on the labels of our inks. These are Unique Formula Identifier codes, known as UFI codes, which are 16 character alphanumeric identifiers used to link a specific hazardous chemical mixture to its exact formulation details within a central poison centre database.

UFI codes were introduced by the European Union to address a serious gap in emergency response. In exposure incidents, poison centres did not always have a reliable way to identify the precise chemical mixture involved, which could delay accurate medical advice. The UFI system creates a direct and unambiguous link between a product on the market and its detailed composition data. In an emergency, medical personnel can use this code to access the correct safety and formulation information quickly, supporting faster and more accurate treatment decisions.

Under the CLP Regulation and its Annex VIII requirements, any company placing a hazardous mixture on the EU market, whether as a manufacturer or importer, is responsible for ensuring that the correct UFI is generated, notified to the relevant authority and displayed either on the product label or within the Safety Data Sheet where labelling exemptions apply. For industrial use mixtures, specific rules determine whether the UFI appears on the label or within Section 1.1 of the SDS, but the responsibility for accuracy and submission remains clear.

Although Cyklop Needham operates outside the EU, we have introduced UFI codes on the labels of all of our inks supplied into EU markets. This ensures our EU distributors can meet their legal obligations with confidence and without disruption. By aligning our labelling and documentation with EU standards, we remove friction from the supply chain and help our partners avoid delays, relabelling costs or compliance risks.

For our customers, this approach delivers practical benefits. It supports safer handling procedures within production environments, strengthens internal compliance audits and ensures that documentation provided with our products aligns with recognised international standards. It also means that in the unlikely event of an incident, the pathway from product label to poison centre database is already established and verified.

Compliance is not treated as a box to tick. It is part of how Cyklop Needham builds long term trust with distributors, printers and industrial users who depend on consistent product information and stable regulatory footing across multiple territories. By proactively adopting measures such as UFI labelling, we help ensure continuity of supply, clarity of information and confidence at every stage of the customer relationship.

If you would like to discuss UFI requirements, labelling obligations or regulatory expectations for industrial inks in your market, our team is available to provide clear and practical guidance.