How to Write an Ingredient List for a Food Label
An ingredient list looks simple until a buyer or an inspector reads it closely. There are real rules about order, names, and what you have to break out. Here is how to write one that holds up.
Heaviest first, by weight
Ingredients are listed in descending order of predominance by weight, the amount that went into the recipe. Whatever weighs the most goes first, down to the pinch of salt at the end. Weigh your recipe rather than guessing, because a common mistake is listing by the order you added things instead of by how much each one weighs.
Use common names buyers know
Call each ingredient by its common or usual name. Sugar, not sucrose. Baking soda is fine, and so is sodium bicarbonate, but pick the name a shopper recognizes. This matters most for allergens, where the food-source name has to be clear.
Break out sub-ingredients
When one of your ingredients is itself made of several things, you generally list its parts in parentheses. Chocolate chips become chocolate chips (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla). This is how a hidden allergen like the soy in chocolate ends up correctly declared.
Spices can be grouped as spices, and flavorings as natural flavor or artificial flavor, but anything that is a major allergen still has to be named.
A quick worked example
Say a batch of chocolate chip cookies is, by weight, mostly flour, then butter, then sugar, then chocolate chips, then egg, then smaller amounts of vanilla, baking soda, and salt. The ingredient list would read: enriched wheat flour, butter (milk), sugar, chocolate chips (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla), egg, vanilla extract, baking soda, salt. Notice the allergen sources are visible right in the list.
Let the recipe build it
Ordering by weight and breaking out sub-ingredients by hand is fiddly and easy to get wrong. Nutripane sorts your ingredient statement by weight and carries the allergens through for you, so the list and the Contains line agree.
Questions
What order do ingredients go in on a label?
Descending order by weight, the amount used in the recipe. The ingredient that weighs the most is listed first, and the smallest amounts come last. List by weight, not by the order you added ingredients while cooking.
Do I have to list sub-ingredients?
Usually yes. When an ingredient is made of several components, such as chocolate chips or a spice blend, you generally list its parts in parentheses. This is important because it reveals hidden allergens, like the soy lecithin in chocolate, that a buyer needs to know about.
Keep reading
This page is general information, not legal advice. Cottage food and food labeling rules vary by state and change over time. Confirm current requirements with your state's cottage food program and the FDA before you sell. See your state's rules or how to label your product.