What Do the Colour Dots on Your Packaging Mean?

A TikTok user’s explanation of food packaging has gone viral after she explained what the mysterious row of multi-coloured circles or bars on packaging are for.

Sonya Gonzalez Mier, who works in food marketing, explained that the circles are actually colour control patches – used during printing.

“We need them because the colours that you see on the packaging are not actually the colours that we’re printing,” said Sonya.

“To choose the colours that you see on the packaging, we actually layer colours and the colour patches are the colours we are layering on top of each other to achieve the colours you see.

To make sure the colours are correct, we look at the colour control patches and if they’re slightly off, we know that the whole packaging will be off.”

Sonya’s TikTok video has been watched over 23,000 times since being posted, with commenters thanking her for explaining the packaging mystery.