As a food manufacturer, you know your food labels must comply with FDA guidelines for nutrition information. And while these guidelines are important in providing transparency about your products so consumers can make educated decisions, the rules can be overwhelming and complicated to navigate.
For a busy food manufacturer with a million things to do, it can be frustrating to take time out of your day to sift through FDA documents—especially when they are about topics as dry and as potentially confusing as the
FDA’s rounding rules
. While having a standard for how to round nutritional values is undoubtedly important for the sake of consistency, actually doing the work can be a little tedious. After all, almost every value on the nutrition facts panel has to be rounded differently.
In hopes of making things easier for you and saving you time, I’ve outlined the basic rounding guidelines for your nutrition facts panel in the simplest terms so you know what the FDA expects. And although it isn’t as simple as rounding up or down to the nearest unit for each value, adhering to the rounding guidelines doesn’t need to be difficult.
Recent FDA Rounding Rules Changes
Most forms of nutritional analysis will give you unrounded values with decimal points, but for the sake of concision and consistency, all values must be rounded. In 2016, the FDA updated its rule to add a requirement that shows an actual amount (in mg or mcg) for mandatory vitamins and minerals in the nutrition facts panel (including Vitamin D, Potassium, Calcium, and Iron) in addition to optional vitamins (including Vitamins A and C, Folate, Zinc, and more).FDA Rounding Rules for Nutrients
Below are the specific rounding rules for each part of the Nutrition Facts panel. [table id=3 /] Note: For values that are exactly halfway between two whole numbers or higher, round up. For values less than halfway between two whole numbers, round down. This applies to both gram and % DV increments.Updated FDA Rounding Rules for Vitamins and Minerals
In 2016, the FDA updated its rounding rules to require the display of specific quantities (in mg or mcg) for essential vitamins and minerals on nutrition panels. The tables provided in this article are sourced from the FDA's " Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels: Questions and Answers Related to the Compliance Date, Added Sugars, and Declaration of Quantitative Amounts of Vitamins and Minerals: Guidance for Industry," published in 2018 and revised in 2019. The table below offers guidelines on how to declare the amounts of vitamins and minerals on labels for adults and children aged 4 and above. These guidelines can also be applied to infants, young children, and pregnant or lactating women based on their specific RDIs. [table id=4 /] Note: * indicates mandatory vitamin/mineral that must be mentioned on your nutrition facts label.Which Business Sectors Are Impacted?
- Packaged Foods: Companies producing canned, frozen, dried, and pre-packaged foods.
- Beverages: Manufacturers of soft drinks, juices, bottled water, and other non-alcoholic beverages.
- Baked Goods: Producers of bread, pastries, cookies, and other baked products.
- Dairy Products: Companies producing milk, cheese, yogurt, and other dairy items.
- Confectionery: Manufacturers of candies, chocolates, and other sweets.
- Snack Foods: Producers of chips, nuts, popcorn, and similar snack items.
- Cereal and Grain Products: Companies producing breakfast cereals, pasta, rice, and other grain-based products.
- Prepared and Convenience Foods: Producers of ready-to-eat meals, frozen dinners, and other convenience food items.
