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A US Nutritional Fact label

The nutrition facts label (also known as the nutrition information panel, and various other slight variations) is a label required on most pre-packaged foods in North America, United Kingdom and other countries.

Regional manifestations

Australia and New Zealand

Australia and New Zealand use a nutritional information panel of the following format:

Other items are included as appropriate, and the units may be varied as appropriate.^[1]

Canada

In Canada, a standardized "Nutrition Facts" label was introduced as part of regulations passed in 2003, and became mandatory for most prepackaged food products on December 12, 2005. (Smaller businesses were given until December 12, 2007 to make the information available.)[2].

As is the case in the United States most foods require a Nutrition Facts Table (NFT). Since the Canadian NFT requirements were published more than 10 years after the United States, and since food science advanced in the intervening years, many of the Recommended Daily Intakes (used to calculate % Daily Value NFT values) differ in Canada. However, most of these differences affect only the vitamins and minerals in the NFT (shown toward the bottom of the Canadian NFT).

Other differences between U.S. and Canadian Regulations have to do with tighter control of the manner in which the NFT data is laid out, as well as how the wide variety of Canadian NFT formats are selected for use on a given food package. In Canada a Selection Hierarchy is used to select among the many formats (28 main formats, and 2-7 subformats for each). This results in Standard (vertical) formats being considered for use before Horizontal and Linear formats. The Selection Hierarchy also allows the NFT to occupy no more than 15% of the physical package's Available Display Area (ADS), but never to be smaller than a format that would be <=15% of ADS. In practice, determining the ADS of a package, and selecting the appropriate NFT format, can be a detailed calculation.

There are many details involved in the calculation, rounding, and display of the nutrient values shown within Canadian NFTs. There are also numerous details specific to the position and orientation of NFTs on the package. These details, described in the Canadian Food and Drug Regulations, are significantly different from those described in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations Title 21 and 9. Consequently, packaged food bound for the U.S. and Canada almost always requires different designs for these jurisdictions.

Mexico

Food products sold in Mexico use the NOM-051-SCFI-1994 "Información nutrimental" product labelling standard (which is very similar to "Nutrition Facts" in the U.S.). The Official Mexican Standard, or NOM (Norma Oficial Mexicana), was developed by the Mexican Secretary of Commerce and Industrial Promotion (Secretaría de Comercio y Fomento Industrial, or SCFI), now a part of the Secretary of the Economy (SECOFI). It entered into effect on January 24, 1996[3], and defines "General specifications for labelling foods and pre-bottled non-alcoholic beverages"[4].

European Union

In the European Union the information (usually in panel format) is most often labelled "Nutrition Information" (or equivalent in other EU languages). The panel is optional, but if provided, the prescribed content and format must be followed. It will always give values for a set quantity (usually 100g or 100ml as appropriate) of the product, and often also for a defined "serving". First will come the energy values, in both kilocalories and kilojoules, although the SI measurement is still little used by the general public.

Then will come a breakdown of constituent elements: usually most or all of protein, carbohydrate, starch, sugar, fat, fibre and sodium. The "fat" figure is likely to be further broken down into saturated and unsaturated fat, while the "carbohydrate" figure is likely to give a subtotal for sugars.

For most foods, there are no specific legal definitions of terms such as "low fat" or "high fibre", although spreadable fats (eg butter and margarine) do have statutory requirements for the quantity of fat they contain. However, terms such as "reduced calorie" may not be used unless they can be shown to be considerably lower in calories than the "usual" version of the product.

Provided the full nutritian information is shown on the packet, additional nutritional information and formats (e.g. "traffic lights") may be included and this falls outside the scope of regulation.

United States

A sample nutrition facts label with instructions from the US FDA. [1]

In the U.S., the nutritional facts label lists the percentage supplied required in one day of human nutrients based on the average 2000 calorie a day diet. With certain exceptions, such as foods meant for babies, the following Daily Values are used (CFR 101.9(c)8(iv)). These are called Reference Daily Intake values and were originally based on the highest 1968 Recommended Dietary Allowances for each nutrient in order to assure that the needs of all age and sex combinations were met.[5] Notice that these are older than the current Recommended Dietary Allowances of the Dietary Reference Intake. For Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and manganese, the current maximum RDA's (over age and sex) are up to 50% higher than the Daily Values used in labeling, whereas for other nutrients the estimated maximal needs have gone down.

In certain cases this label is not yet required by law, so a list of ingredients should be present instead. Ingredients are listed in order from highest to lowest quantity.

The label was mandated for most food products under the provisions of the 1990 Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA), per the recommendations of the United States Department of Health and Human Services' Food and Drug Administration[6]. It was one of several controversial actions taken during the tenure of FDA Commissioner Dr. David Kessler. The law required food companies to begin using the new food label on packaged foods beginning May 8, 1994. (Meat and poultry products were not covered by NLEA, though the U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed similar regulations for voluntary labeling of raw meat and poultry.^[2]) Foods labeled before that day could use the old label. This appeared on all products in 1995. The old label was titled "Nutrition Information Per Serving" or simply, "Nutrition Information".

The label begins with a standard serving measurement, calories are listed second, and then following is a break down of the constituent elements. Always listed are total fat, sodium, carbohydrates and protein; the other nutrients usually shown may be suppressed if they are zero. Usually all 15 nutrients are shown: calories, calories from fat, fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, dietary fiber, sugars, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron.

Products containing less than 5g of fat show amounts rounded to the nearest .5g. Amounts less than .5g are rounded to 0g. For example, if a product contains .45g of trans fat per serving, and the package contains 18 servings, the label would show 0g of trans fat, even though the product actually contains a total of 8.1g of trans fat.

Products that claim to be classified as low-fat and high-fiber must achieve uniform definitions between products of similar labels.

The nutrition facts label currently appears on more than 6.5 billion food packages. President Bill Clinton issued an award of design excellence for the nutrition facts label in 1997 to Burkey Belser in Washington, DC.

The FDA does not require any specific typeface be used in the Nutrition Facts label, mandating only that the label "utilize a single easy-to-read type style^[3]," though its example label uses Helvetica.^[4]

See also

• Diet (nutrition)
• Food Energy
• The Atwater System

Further information

• U.S. Food and Drug Administration - Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition : The Food Label
• Health Canada : Nutrition Labelling
• U.K. Food Standards Agency : Labelling
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration - Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition : Examples of Revised Nutrition Facts Panel Listing Trans Fat
• 21 CFR 101.9 (The actual text of the labeling regulation in the U.S.)
• EU website on nutrition labeling

References

External links

• Search for Nutrition Facts Labels for Over 7,000 Foods : [7]

Nutirtion Facts, Calories in Food, Labels