Every packaged food sold in the United States must carry five core pieces of information: the name of the food, the net quantity (how much is inside), a Nutrition Facts panel, an ingredient list, and the name and address of the manufacturer, packer, or distributor. These requirements come from federal regulations enforced by the FDA, and they apply to nearly every item you’d pick up in a grocery store aisle. Beyond those five basics, allergen disclosures and specific formatting rules add additional layers that manufacturers must follow.
The Five Mandatory Label Elements
The front of a food package, known as the principal display panel, must show two things: the statement of identity (the product’s name) and the net quantity of contents (the amount of food inside). The name can be a common name like “tomato soup” or a name established by regulation. The net quantity tells you the weight, volume, or count, depending on the product, and must appear in both U.S. customary and metric units.
The remaining required information typically appears on what’s called the information panel, which is the side or back of the package. This includes the Nutrition Facts label, the full ingredient list, and the name and place of business of the company responsible for the product. These elements must appear together without unrelated material breaking them up.
What the Nutrition Facts Panel Must Show
The Nutrition Facts panel is the most detailed part of any food label. It must declare serving size, servings per container, calories, total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrate, dietary fiber, total sugars, added sugars, and protein. Four micronutrients are also mandatory: vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium.
Manufacturers can voluntarily list other vitamins and minerals, but there’s a catch. If a company adds a nutrient to the food (like adding vitamin C to a juice drink) or makes any claim about a nutrient’s content or health effects (“good source of zinc,” for example), that nutrient must appear on the panel. The percent Daily Value (%DV) column puts each nutrient in context, showing how a single serving fits into a 2,000-calorie daily diet. As a quick rule of thumb, 5% DV or less is considered low, while 20% DV or more is considered high.
Calorie counts get the most visual emphasis. On a standard vertical Nutrition Facts panel, the calorie number must be printed in bold type no smaller than 16 points, making it roughly the size of a newspaper subheadline. Serving size text must be at least 10 points. Even on the smallest packages (those with less than 12 square inches of label space), all type must be at least 6 points.
How the Ingredient List Works
Ingredients must be listed by their common or usual names in descending order of predominance by weight. The first ingredient listed is always the one present in the greatest amount. This is useful: if sugar appears before flour on a cereal box, the product contains more sugar than flour by weight.
There’s one flexibility built into this system. Ingredients present at 2% or less of the total weight don’t need to follow strict descending order. Instead, they can be grouped at the end of the list after a phrase like “Contains 2% or less of” followed by the remaining ingredients. You’ll see this on most processed foods.
When an ingredient is itself a mixture (like chocolate, which contains cocoa, sugar, and cocoa butter), manufacturers have two options. They can list the ingredient by name and follow it with a parenthetical breakdown of its components in descending order, or they can skip naming the compound ingredient entirely and just weave each sub-ingredient into the main list in its correct position by weight.
The Nine Major Allergens
Federal law requires clear disclosure of nine major food allergens. The original eight were established by the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act, and sesame was added as the ninth through the FASTER Act. The full list:
- Milk
- Eggs
- Fish (such as bass, flounder, cod)
- Crustacean shellfish (such as crab, lobster, shrimp)
- Tree nuts (such as almonds, walnuts, pecans)
- Peanuts
- Wheat
- Soybeans
- Sesame
These allergens must be identified either within the ingredient list itself, using their common names, or in a separate “Contains” statement immediately after the ingredient list. For fish, shellfish, and tree nuts, the specific type must be named. A label can’t just say “tree nuts”; it must specify “almonds” or “cashews.”
Manufacturer, Packer, or Distributor
The label must name the company responsible for the product, along with its place of business: city, state, and ZIP code. A street address is also required unless the company is listed in a current city or telephone directory. If the company named on the label didn’t actually manufacture the food, the label must clarify the relationship with phrasing like “Manufactured for,” “Distributed by,” or similar wording.
For corporations, the actual corporate name must be used, not just a brand name or trade name. The company may list its principal place of business rather than the specific factory where the food was made, as long as doing so isn’t misleading.
Net Quantity Placement and Size Rules
The net quantity statement has some of the most specific formatting rules of any label element. It must appear in the bottom 30% of the principal display panel (though packages with 5 square inches or less of display area are exempt from this placement rule). It must stand apart from other text, separated by at least a space equal to the height of the lettering above and below it. Language that exaggerates the amount, like “jumbo quart” or “full gallon,” is prohibited.
Minimum type size depends on the size of the package. Packages with a display panel of 5 square inches or less need type at least one-sixteenth of an inch tall. Panels between 5 and 25 square inches require one-eighth inch. Panels between 25 and 100 square inches need three-sixteenths of an inch. The text must be bold, in clear contrast to the background, and the letters can’t be more than three times as tall as they are wide, preventing manufacturers from using ultra-narrow fonts that are technically tall enough but hard to read.
Who Is Exempt From Nutrition Labeling
Not every food business needs to print a full Nutrition Facts panel. Small retailers with total annual gross sales of $500,000 or less, or food and dietary supplement sales to consumers of $50,000 or less, are exempt without needing to notify the FDA. Businesses with fewer than 100 full-time equivalent employees that sell fewer than 100,000 units of a given product per year can also claim an exemption, though they must file an annual notice with the FDA. The smallest operations, those with fewer than 10 full-time equivalent employees that aren’t importers, don’t even need to file a notice for products selling fewer than 10,000 units annually.
These exemptions disappear the moment a company puts any nutrition claim on the label. Adding “sugar free,” “low fat,” or any health claim to the packaging means a full Nutrition Facts panel is required regardless of company size or sales volume.
A Proposed Change: Front-of-Package Labels
The FDA has proposed requiring a front-of-package nutrition label on most packaged foods. The proposed format, called “Nutrition Info,” would display saturated fat, sodium, and added sugar content as “Low,” “Med,” or “High” in a simple black-and-white graphic. In FDA testing, this design outperformed alternatives in helping consumers quickly identify healthier options. The rule is still in the public comment phase, with comments accepted through July 15, 2025, so it hasn’t taken effect yet.