New Workflow for Redesigned FDA Nutrition Facts Labels

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Below is a a zip file containing all of the sample labels from a cookie recipe.
Download Sample PDF Labels

Video Overview:

On May 27, 2016 the FDA approved a new redesigned label for food manufacturers. You can read more in the link below

FDA Regulatory Link

When do I need to have the new labels by?

If you have less than $10 million in sales, the deadline for new labels is July 26, 2019

If you have more than $10 million in sales, the deadline for new labels is July 26, 2018

Special Note

Menutail is currently the only nutrition analysis tool on the Internet that is supporting the new redesigned nutrition facts labels in the FDA preferred font of Helvetica as well as the dual column labels.

What are the major regulation changes?

1) Serving Size Update

The FDA has defined new Reference Amount Customarily Consumed (RACC) amounts. For example a serving of ice cream is now considered 2/3 of a cup.

2) Added Sugars

You are now required to disclose added sugars on your food formulation. Things like raw sugar, brown sugar,honey, corn syrup, and sugars from syrup would be considered an added sugar

3) Nutrient Disclosures

Vitamin D and Potassium are now required. Also, you are now required to disclose the the actual amounts of micronutrients. Menutail will take care of this.

4) Dual Column Labels (see example of label at end of document)

FDA Regulations states that if your serving size weighs at least 200% and up to 300% of your package, a dual column label is required. Menutail will alert you if this is the case.
Example:

Single Serving Weight 15.0g
Total Food Weight: 45.0g
Serving Size Ratio: 300% (45.0/15.0)*100

The Serving Size Ratio is between >200% and <= 300% which flags this FDA regulation and requires a dual column label.

5) Round Up Rule

If your package has less than two servings, the FDA will force the serving size to be rounded up to the entire package.
FDA Regulations states that a product that is packaged and sold individually that contains less than 200 percent of the applicable reference amount must be considered to be a single-serving container, and the entire content of the product must be labeled as one serving. Menutail will alert you when this happens.

Example:
Single Serving Weight 15.0g
Total Food Weight: 28.0g
Serving Size Ratio: 187% (28.0/15.0)*100
The Serving Size Ratio is between <= 200% which flags this FDA regulation

The new serving size is now 28.0g instead of 15.0g

New FDA 2016 Nutrition Facts Workflow

Step 0: Racc Check

The FDA has changed the definition of Reference Amount Customarily Consumed (RACC) amounts. We have created a new page to help you find your new values.

On the left side bar click ‘Racc Helper’

This page is the same text as this regulation:

http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr;sid=6daba5014ee305c0ce964e445538a128;rgn=div5;view=text;node=21%3A2.0.1.1.2;idno=21;cc=ecfr#se21.2.101_112

Look up your product in the page either through the
1. Category Filter
2. Search
Write down the reference amount and label statement

For example in this ice cream example
a. Serving Size – 2/3 cup

***Potential Impact to your food product packaging
Note that the new serving sizes may require you to reformulate your food packaging. We advise that you do some test runs of creation a nutrition facts labels to assess any impacts early on.

Step 1: Label Name and Serving Sizes

When creating a recipe, these two new values are now required:

Single serving weight
Total food weight

For example, if you had

1 cookie – 30 grams
12 cookies in a package

You would write:

Single serving weight – 30
Total food weight 360 (30*12)

The reason we need this values up front is because have to do perform a

Dual column label check
Potential serving size rounding check

Step 2: Regulation Check

In this page, there are 3 scenarios you can run into

Scenario 1: All rules pass

In this scenario, your serving sizes didn’t trigger any rules, and you will go through the normal workflow

Scenario 2: Dual Column Label

If your formulation flagged a dual column, you have two options:

Click back and reformulate your recipe so you no longer are under a dual column regulation
Click next and continue

Scenario 3: Label Serving’s Size Rounded Up

If your formulation flagged for rounding, it means your serving size gets rounded up, increasing the value of your nutrition label. You have two options: