Product claims you can back up

When asked for an appealing product description, a language model tends to add words common in ads: no preservatives, one hundred percent natural, halal, registered with the food and drug agency, meets the national standard, safe for children, lowers cholesterol. The model does not know whether your product is like that. It only knows those words often appear in descriptions of similar products. This is hallucination in its most dangerous form for a seller: it sounds reasonable, and it goes straight in front of buyers.

A claim in a product description is a promise to the buyer. Some claims need official proof. A halal label may only be used if your product is halal-certified. For food and drink, halal certification is now mandatory: the phase-in for micro and small businesses ended on 17 October 2026 (Law No. 33 of 2014 in conjunction with Government Regulation No. 42 of 2024). Micro and small businesses can apply through the free business-owner self-declaration route. Check the latest rules on the halal product agency (BPJPH) website. This is general information, not legal advice. A home-industry food permit (P-IRT) number or a food and drug agency (BPOM) distribution permit number (MD/ML) is written only if that permit really exists for that product, and the number is copied from the document, not from memory. The national standard (SNI) mark is only for products that have passed its certification. Health claims on food, such as 'lowers blood sugar', are tightly regulated: a health claim on food needs BPOM approval, and it may not be written for a P-IRT product.

Other claims need no certificate but must still be true. 'Made with real butter' is true if your recipe really uses butter, not margarine. 'Keeps for two weeks at room temperature' is true if you have tested it. 'Cotton fabric' is true if your supplier's label says so. Our rule of thumb: every claim must point to where it came from, whether a certificate, permit, recipe, supplier label or your own test.

This rule is not only about ethics. Law Number 8 of 1999 on Consumer Protection, Article 9, bans businesses from offering or advertising goods untruthfully or as if they had qualities they do not have. The examples in that article include: as if the goods meet a quality standard when they do not, as if the goods have a particular approval when they do not, and using exaggerated words such as safe or harmless without complete information. Marketplaces also have their own rules on claims and prohibited products, and can take down listings that break them. Check the seller rules page of the marketplace you use, because the rules can change. This summary is general information, not legal advice; read the official text of the article and ask a legal professional when unsure.

The safest way to use AI for descriptions is to give it a fact sheet, then forbid it from adding other facts. The fact sheet holds the product name, ingredients or material, size or net weight, storage, a shelf life you have tested, permits and certificates that really exist with their numbers, and what may not be claimed. In the request, write under Limits: do not add claims that are not in the material. Under Check, ask the model to mark each sentence with where its fact came from. Strike out any sentence with no source.

Photos can make claims too. A halal logo placed on a product photo, a leaf image to suggest natural, or 'best seller' written on the cover image are claims as weighty as text. If you use AI to create or edit product images, also check whether a logo, label or text was added that you did not ask for.