Glass and fork (for food contact)
The item is meant to come into contact with food. It is one of three ways the EU allows a maker to say so: the words ‘for food contact’, a description of the use (such as ‘wine bottle’ or ‘soup spoon’), or this symbol.
Set by EU law
Where the rule comes from
Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004, Article 15(1)(a) and Annex II. Article 15(2) says the label is not needed on things that are clearly for food, which is why most plates, cups and cutlery carry no glass and fork at all. Great Britain keeps the same rule in its retained copy of the regulation.
- What it looks like
- A stemmed wine glass beside a fork, side by side, with no frame. It is moulded into the base of plastic boxes and bottles or printed on the pack. The regulation fixes the drawing; makers still vary its weight and add a square box around it.
- Other names
- food contact symbol; wine glass and fork symbol; cup and fork symbol; the ‘food safe’ symbol (a name shops and makers use; the law’s words are ‘for food contact’)
What it does not promise
The glass and fork says nothing about heat. It is not a microwave-, oven-, freezer- or dishwasher-safe mark, and any limits on use belong in the maker’s instructions — Article 15(1)(b) asks for ‘special instructions to be observed for safe and appropriate use’ where needed. It is not a test certificate either: Article 15 is a labelling rule, and a missing mark does not by itself mean an item is unfit, because things obviously meant for food need not carry it.
Where makers differ
Makers go further than the law in their own keys. Mepal explains the icon as the product being safe to eat or drink from, and Nordic Houseware Group calls it ‘food approved’. The regulation’s own words are only ‘for food contact’. Whirlpool’s guide describes it as tableware ‘suitable to come into contact with food’, which is close to the legal meaning.
Often confused with
The maker says the item may be washed in a dishwasher. When the water covers the whole drawing, Finish reads it as probably fine on either rack.
More set by law symbols
Sources
The law comes first, then how makers and shops describe the mark. Each page was fetched and read on the date shown:
- EUR-Lex (Official Journal of the European Union): Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 on materials and articles intended to come into contact with food — Article 15 (labelling) and Annex II (the symbol) — The official text of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 (OJ L 338, 13.11.2004). Article 15(1)(a): materials not yet in contact with food when sold must be accompanied by ‘the words “for food contact”, or a specific indication as to their use, such as coffee machine, wine bottle, soup spoon, or the symbol reproduced in Annex II’. Article 15(2): not obligatory for articles which ‘because of their characteristics, are clearly intended to come into contact with food’. Annex II is the glass-and-fork drawing. EUR-Lex answered our scripted fetch with a browser check on the date shown, so we read the same articles in the as-adopted copy on legislation.gov.uk (next source). Checked 2026-09-24.
- legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives, UK): Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004, Article 15 — the text as adopted by the EU — The EU wording of Article 15 as adopted, word for word as quoted above, including 15(3) — the information ‘shall be conspicuous, clearly legible and indelible’ — and 15(4): retail sale is prohibited if it ‘is not given in a language easily understood by purchasers’. Checked 2026-09-24.
- legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives, UK): Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004, Article 15 — as it applies in Great Britain — The version in force in Great Britain keeps the same Article 15(1)(a) choice between the words ‘for food contact’, an indication of use and the Annex II symbol, and the same Article 15(2) exemption; the language rule in 15(4) became English, or English and Welsh. Checked 2026-09-24.
- legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives, UK): Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004, Article 3 — general requirements — Article 3 applies to every food contact material, marked or not: made under good manufacturing practice so that ‘under normal or foreseeable conditions of use’ it does not transfer its constituents to food in quantities which could endanger human health or change the food’s composition, taste or smell; and its labelling ‘shall not mislead the consumers’. Checked 2026-09-24.
- European Commission (DG Health and Food Safety): Food contact materials — Legislation — The Commission’s summary of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004: rules on labelling ‘including an indication for use (e.g. as a coffee machine, a wine bottle, or a soup spoon) or by reproducing the appropriate symbol’, with a link to its working document ‘Symbols for labelling food contact materials’. Checked 2026-09-24.
- European Commission (DG Health and Consumers): Symbols to label food contact materials — working document SANCO E3/FV, 15 September 2009 — Reproduces the food contact symbol and explains that under Article 15 of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 food contact materials ‘shall be accompanied by the words “for food contact” or this symbol, unless when it is obvious that the article is for food contact’. The document says it ‘is meant for information’. Checked 2026-09-24.
- Wisefood (catering-disposables retailer, Germany) : The mark for food safety — Warns that the glass and fork ‘is sometimes confused with’ the dishwasher-safe symbol, ‘Because the food safety of an object is no indication of its heat stability, for example if it gets hotter than 60 degrees Celsius in the dishwasher.’ Checked 2026-09-24.
- Whirlpool : Dishwasher Safe & Other Tableware Symbols — Shows a wine-glass-and-fork icon under ‘Can be used for food storage’: ‘You can usually tell if a dish or glass can be used to serve food if you see a symbol including a wine glass and fork.’ Checked 2026-09-24.
Written in our own words; quotations are the sources’ wording.