Free Nutrition Label Generator

Most packaged food sold in the United States needs one. FDA rule 21 CFR 101.9 exempts a few cases: retailers with annual sales of $500,000 or less (or food sales of $50,000 or less), and low volume products from companies with fewer than 100 full time employees that sell fewer than 100,000 units a year. The low volume exemption needs a notice filed with FDA each year, unless the company has fewer than 10 employees and sells fewer than 10,000 units.

Any nutrition claim cancels an exemption. Words like "low fat", "good source of fiber" or "no added sugar" mean the product needs a full label. Cottage food and farmers market rules are set by each state, and retailers often ask for a label even when the law does not, so many small brands make one with a nutrition label generator anyway.

There is no minimum label size, only minimum type sizes. The standard vertical label is the default. If the panel has less than about 3 inches of continuous height, the tabular format is allowed. Packages with 40 square inches or less of label area may use abbreviations such as "Total Carb.", and when a standard label fits on no panel, the tabular format, or linear when tabular will not fit either.

A package with 200% to 300% of the reference amount, such as a pint of ice cream or a 24 oz bottle of soda, must show a dual column label: one column per serving and one for the whole package. Under 12 square inches with no claims, no label is needed, but the pack must give an address or phone number for nutrition information. The format helper in this nutrition label generator works all of this out from your measurements.

Each nutrient has its own rounding rule. Calories round to the nearest 5 up to 50 and to the nearest 10 above. Fats round to 0.5 g under 5 g and to 1 g above, and show as 0 under 0.5 g. Sodium rounds to 5 mg up to 140 mg and to 10 mg above. Cholesterol from 2 to 5 mg is written as "less than 5mg". Carbohydrates, fiber, sugars and protein round to 1 g, with "less than 1g" allowed under 1 g.

The % Daily Value compares a nutrient with its reference amount, such as 78 g for total fat or 2,300 mg for sodium. Fats, sodium and carbohydrates round to the nearest 1%. Vitamins and minerals use 2% steps up to 10%, 5% steps up to 50% and 10% steps above. FDA lets you base the %DV on the rounded or the actual amount; the nutrition label generator uses the rounded amount by default so a label never shows "0g" next to "2%", and you can switch.

A nutrition facts label generator does not invent the numbers; it formats the ones you give it. You can get them from a food lab, which tests a sample of the finished product, or from software that adds up the ingredients of your recipe from a nutrient database. Lab analysis costs more and takes longer but measures what you actually make; database analysis is faster and works well for simple recipes.

Either way the values must hold up if FDA tests your product. Added vitamins, minerals, protein and fiber must be at least 100% of the label value, naturally occurring ones at least 80%, and calories, sugars, fats, cholesterol and sodium may not be more than 20% above it. Keep your records: FDA can ask for them.

Trans fat and total sugars have no Daily Value, so they never get a %DV. Vitamin and mineral lines are never bold, and "Calories from Fat" has not been allowed since the 2016 update. The added sugars line reads "Includes 10g Added Sugars", indented under total sugars. Potassium and vitamin D are required, while vitamins A and C are now optional.

Watch the footnote and the claims, too. The current footnote starts with "The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet", and labels for children 1 to 3 years use 1,000 calories instead of 2,000. No tool can make a label "FDA approved", because FDA does not approve labels in advance. This nutrition label maker builds these rules in, so the mistakes above cannot happen.

The regulation asks for a single easy to read type style, all black or one color on a white or neutral background, inside a hairline box. FDA recommends Helvetica, which needs a license, so this nutrition label generator uses Libre Franklin, an open Franklin Gothic design in the same family FDA allows for the "Nutrition Facts" heading.

For print, use the PDF or EPS: the text is already outlined, so nothing changes at the printer, and black is pure K for a crisp single plate. Place the label at its true size, never scale it below the size the tool gives you, and keep it on the information panel or the principal display panel. For barcodes on the same pack, use the free UPC barcode generator.