Nutrition facts label

[3] Australia and New Zealand use a nutritional information panel of the following format: Servings per package: xServing size: y g Other items are included as appropriate, and the units may be varied as appropriate (e.g. substituting ml for g, or mmol for mg in the 'Sodium' row).

[4] In April 2013 the New Zealand government introduced rules around common claims made on food packaging, such as 'low in fat'.

[7] 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.

[10] Canadian regulation tightly controls the manner in which the nutrition fact table (NFT) data are laid out.

[11][12] The following types of food are exempt from labeling:[12]: §7 The United Kingdom introduced Guideline Daily Amounts in 1996.

Then will come a breakdown of constituent elements: usually most or all of protein, carbohydrate, starch, sugar, fat, fibre and sodium.

With the "new" rules, the mandatory information is: energy, fat, saturates, carbohydrates, sugars, protein and salt, in that particular order, with options to extend this list to: mono-unsaturates, polyunsaturates, polyols, starch, fibre, and vitamins and minerals.

[17][18] Within Regulation 1924, there are legal definitions of terms such as "low fat", "high fibre", "reduced calories".

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), now a part of the Secretary of the Economy (SECOFI).

It entered into effect on January 24, 1996,[24] and defines "General specifications for labelling foods and pre-bottled non-alcoholic beverages.

This system was extended to food operators in 2003, allowing them to display the symbol next to the dishes meeting its criteria on the menu.

[27] Nutri-Grade system is based on the sugar and saturated fat content in beverages, and has four grading levels.

[30] These are called Reference Daily Intake (RDI) values and were originally based on the highest 1968 Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for each nutrient in order to assure that the needs of all age and sex combinations were met.

[33] Additionally, there is a requirement for ingredients to be listed in order from highest to lowest quantity, according to their weight.

The label begins with a standard serving measurement, calories are listed second, and then following is a breakdown of the constituent elements including % daily value (%DV).

These health claims are only allowed by the FDA for "eight diet and health relationships based on proven scientific evidence", including: calcium and osteoporosis, fiber-containing grain products, fruits and vegetables and cancer, fruits, vegetables, and grain products that contain fiber—particularly soluble fiber—and the risk of coronary heart disease, fat and cancer, saturated fat and cholesterol and coronary heart disease, sodium and hypertension, and folate and neural tube defects.

President Bill Clinton issued the Presidential Award for Design Excellence for the nutrition facts label in 1997 to Burkey Belser and Jerold Mande.

[47] However, as regulated by the FDA and the USDA, it is mandatory for certain information listed in the label to be written in English, including: name of the product, net quantity, serving size and number of servings per package, nutrition facts, ingredient list, and name of manufacturer or distributor.

[50] In 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed several simultaneous improvements to nutrition labeling for the first time in over 20 years.

[53] However, studies had shown that the majority of the U.S. population could not understand the information in the then current Nutrition Facts Label.

[55] Final changes included raising serving sizes to more accurately reflect how many servings the average individual is actually consuming, removing "calories from fat" and instead focusing on total calories and type of fats being consumed in a product, and listing extra sugar added to a product, as well as declaring the amount of vitamin D and potassium in a product and adjusting recommended Daily Value amounts.

[62][53] For food and dietary supplement labeling purposes, the amounts of vitamins and nutritionally essential minerals in a serving are expressed as a percent of Daily Value (%DV).

Since at least 2003, consumer groups have lobbied the TTB to require labeling disclosing Nutrition Facts information.