When is Nutrition labeling required?

A - The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 (NLEA) became law on November 8, 1990 and has led to significant changes in food labeling regulations. These regulations address three primary areas: the nutrition label, nutrient content claims, and health claims.

The new nutrition labeling regulations (21 CFR 101.9) require nutrition labels on almost all packaged foods, revise the list of nutrients whose content levels are required to be shown on the nutrition label, adopt a new format for the nutrition label, and provide for more consistent serving sizes across product lines to reflect the amounts people actually eat. The basic nutrition label is to list 14 nutrients. The nutrients and the order in which they must be listed are: calories, calories from fat, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrate, dietary fiber, sugars, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron. Other vitamins and minerals for which Reference Daily Intakes (RDI's) have been established must be declared if a claim is made about them or if they have been added as a nutrient supplement.

In addition to these mandatory nutrients, manufacturars may voluntarily choose to include calories from saturated fat, and amounts of polyunsaturated fat, monounsaturated fat, potassium, soluble fiber, insoluble fiber, sugar alcohol, other carbohydrates, other vitamins and minerals for which RDIs have been established, and beta-carotene (as a% of vitamin A). The amounts of nutrients declared in nutrition labels are for the product in the package, before consumer preparation. However, when foods are not intended to be consumed as packaged, manufacturars are encouraged to add another column of information specifying the% Daily Value of a serving of the food "as consumed."

Food Labeling and Nutritional Information