As a food manufacturing company, you need to follow a number of rules and regulations. Failure to follow these rules could lead to legal troubles, which will cost you a lot of money and may damage your reputation.
There is a set of mandatory rules for nutritional labels that ensure the safety of consumers. Every food manufacturer must include certain data points on all of their nutrition labels to make it easier for consumers to stay healthy and make great food choices.
What Should Be Included on a Food Nutrition Label?
Depending on the country and area that you operate in, the exact rules may differ slightly. However, there are certain things that are required on nutrition labels in most countries.
Generally, nutritional labels state the nutritional values of a food product per serving. The serving size will vary between each product that you manufacture. You can use a nutrient value calculator to make labelling your food products easier and to increase the accuracy of your values.
Here are seven important things to include on the nutrition labels of every food product that you manufacture.
1. Serving Size.
You must state the number of servings that is in a product and how much is considered a single serving. Usually, servings sizes are stated in grams or fractions.
Serving sizes make it easier for consumers to determine what a healthy portion is and how much food to eat in one sitting.
2. Total Calories.
You must include the number of calories in each serving of your products. Consumers can then calculate the total calories they’re consuming if they choose to have more than one portion.
3. Carbohydrates, Fiber, and Sugars.
Carbohydrates can be split into dietary fiber and sugars. You must include the total carbohydrates, dietary fiber, and total sugar content of each product on their nutrition labels. Usually, they are all denoted in grams per serving.
4. Total, Saturated, and Trans Fat.
Every nutrition label needs to clearly state the total amount of fat in a single serving of the product, as well as the amount of saturated and trans fats.
Ideally, food products should have limited saturated fats and no trans fats, as they have both been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
5. Protein.
As with carbohydrates and fats, you need to add the total number of grams of protein in each serving of your products onto the nutrition labels. Unlike carbs and fats, the protein content is written as a single number and is not split into different categories.
6. Sodium.
Excessive sodium intake has been closely linked to an increased risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and chronic kidney disease. Therefore, it’s mandatory for all food manufacturers to state the amount of sodium in a single serving of each of their food products.
7. Micronutrients.
You don’t need to include every micronutrient on your nutrition labels. However, you might want to highlight which products contain high amounts of certain vitamins and minerals to make them more appealing to consumers.
