The Nutrition Facts Label Explained

Serving size and servings per container

At the top, in bold, is the serving size and the number of servings in the package. Serving sizes are based on the amount people typically eat, not on how little you can make the calories look. Every number below the serving size is per serving, so the serving size sets the whole panel.

Calories

Calories are printed large because they are what most buyers check first. It is the calories in one serving, so if the package holds four servings, someone who eats the whole thing eats four times this number.

Percent Daily Value

The percent Daily Value, the %DV column, tells a buyer how much a serving contributes to a daily diet, based on a 2,000 calorie reference. As a rule of thumb, 5 percent DV or less is low and 20 percent DV or more is high. It lets people compare products without doing math.

The nutrients you have to show

The panel lists a required set of nutrients: total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrate, dietary fiber, total sugars, added sugars, and protein. Added sugars is a separate line under total sugars, a change from the older panel, so a buyer can see what was put in versus what is naturally there.

Below those, the updated panel shows vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium with their amounts and %DV. Vitamins A and C are no longer required, though you can include them.

The footnote

At the bottom, a footnote explains that %DV is based on a 2,000 calorie daily diet. It is standard wording that appears on every panel. Nutripane computes each of these values from your recipe and lays them out in the current Nutrition Facts format, so the panel you preview is the panel you print.

Questions

Keep reading