- 25
Sep
Finally, a free Nutrition Facts labeling tool!
A few people have asked me for a software to print Food Nutrition Facts Labels to use in conjunction with the nutritional analysis tool of Shop’NCook software. I made some research, but couldn’t find a free nutrition facts labeling tool on the internet. As far as I can tell, there isn’t any nutrition facts labeling software at all on the Mac OS X platform and the couple of programs I tried on Windows produced good-looking labels, but they did not follow the complex FDA rules.
To fill this gap, I have written a free tool to make nutrition facts labels. It is easy to use and online, so you don’t need to download anything. Click the button below to get started or continue to read if you want more information.
What does it do?
You input the nutritional values for the different nutrients on the form and it will format them according to the FDA code, section 101.9, that implements the provisions of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) of 1990.
When labeling for food manufacturing, click here for a few tips to improve the compliance of your nutrition facts labels when using software to compute the nutritional values.
Need a bilingual nutrition facts panel for Canada?
Check this blog post!
Update 6 Jan 2008: it implements now also the amendment of July 11, 2003 about trans fat, effective January 1st 2006.
What is the serving size?
FDA rules has strict instructions on selecting the size of a serving. If you are not sure what is the serving size of your product, check the regulations.
What nutrients must be input in the form?
You must input the following compulsory nutrient values:
- total calories
- calories from fat
- total fat
- saturated fat
- trans fat
- cholesterol
- sodium
- total carbohydrate
- dietary fiber
- sugars
- protein
- vitamin A
- vitamin C
- calcium
- iron
Additionally, some voluntary nutrients can be added. The only voluntary nutrient supported at the time being by the form is sugar alcohol. If you need other voluntary components, let me know and I will add them as time allows.
Update 24 March 2009: I have added now support for all the optional vitamins and minerals. To add an optional vitamin or mineral, first select the checkbox “Include optional vitamins or minerals”, then select the checkboxes next to the minerals or vitamins you want to include.
Update 14 June 2009: I have added now support also for polyunsaturated fat, monounsaturated fat and potassium. To add them or sugar alcohol to the label, select “Include voluntary components”, check the boxes next to the components you want to include, and input their values.
Update 24 February 2013: I have added support for the ingredient and allergen labeling, as well as for a name and address. To add these components to the label, check the corresponding boxes next to them. Usually, you should include all three on the same panel. Therefore, if you check one, make sure to check them all. In some cases however, you may omit the allergen labeling if the names of the allergens are already included in the ingredient list. For more information, see this post.
What are the voluntary components of the nutrition facts panel?
The voluntary components are:
- calories from saturated fat
- polyunsaturated fat
- monounsaturated fat
- potassium
- soluble fiber
- insoluble fiber
- sugar alcohol (for example, the sugar substitutes xylitol, mannitol and sorbitol)
- other carbohydrate (the difference between total carbohydrate and the sum of dietary fiber, sugars, and sugar alcohol if declared)
- percent of vitamin A present as beta-carotene
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin K
- Thiamin
- Riboflavin
- Niacin
- Vitamin B6
- Folate
- Vitamin B12
- Biotin
- Pantothenic acid
- Phosphorus
- Iodine
- Magnesium
- Zinc
- Selenium
- Copper
- Manganese
- Chromium
- Molybdenum
- Chloride
Can the online nutrition facts tool be used for every kind of food?
No, it cannot be used in any of the following three cases:
- If the food is not targeting the general population, but less than 4-year-old children, infants, pregnant or lactating women.
- For meat and poultry products as they are regulated by USDA and are not covered by NLEA.
- If the panel must include some of voluntary components not supported by the script. A voluntary component must be included if you make a claim on your label about it or if the food is enriched by it.
Can I use the nutrition facts tool in Canada (UK, Australia, etc.)?
No, this tool is based only on US nutrition facts panel rules. If there are enough interest, I may add other countries at a later time.
Do you guarantee the nutrition facts tool follows FDA rules?
No. I have done my best to follow the FDA formatting rules to the word, but it is a free tool and I don’t guarantee I didn’t make mistakes. I guarantee however to fix promptly any mistake pointed out to me.
How do I get the nutrient values?
The USDA has a database of nutrient values for a large number of food. You can also use a cooking software like Shop’NCook to compute the nutritional analysis from a recipe.
Can I use the nutrition facts labeling tool directly from Shop’NCook software?
Not yet. Shop’NCook software can compute the nutritional values of your label, but you must then copy the computed values manually to the online labeling form. If there is enough interest, I will add a function to populate the form directly from Shop’NCook. If you would like such a function, leave a comment or send me a message.
Anyway, do I need a nutrition facts panel on my products?
If you have a small business and don’t make any health claim on your label, you probably don’t need a nutrition facts panel, but you may have to notify the FDA to be able to claim an exemption. When exempt products carry nutritional information, they must however follow the regulation. For a lot of useful information on this and on the type of claims allowed on a food product label, go here.
[…] you ever wanted to know about writing nutrition facts panels… http://www.shopncook.com/blog/?p=11 […]
PLEASE MAKE ONE FOR THE CANADIAN NUTRITION FACTS… THIS IS EXCELLENT
Nelson,
Almost 10 years went by… but I have finally made an online tool to create bilingual nutrition facts panels.
PLEASE MAKE ONE FOR CANADIAN NUTRITION FACTS… THIS IS EXCELLENT
OK, I will do it when I find the time!
dear Mr,Mathilde
thank you for your article
really it add to me more …. many things i don”t know before
.. but i still have a problem
because i especially work in food industry .. and i need a program to put the content of my new recipe as a quantity in this program
to get the result ready
pls. try to help me
regards .. Moh.
Mohammed,
You can download the trial of Shop’NCook Pro at http://www.shopncook.com/pro.html to compute the nutritional information of your recipes. You can then format them with the tool above.
Note however that to get an accurate nutritional analysis, you have to input first into Shop’NCook Pro the nutritional values for the actual ingredients you are using. You should be able to get them from your suppliers. The default values of the database may correspond to an average of similar products or to a different brand and may not be reliable enough for labeling purposes. Also, you may have to adjust also the values for nutritional loss during processing. I will write a post soon about computing nutrition analysis for labeling purpose, stay tuned!
what type of label peel-off paper can i use. Does avery paper have peel off labels that coordinate with the length of the nutriotional label
Hi,
This is a nice piece of WORK!!! THX
Is there any possibility to save the label, in an electronic format (something like bmp, jpg, tiff)?
thx
For those we have requested it: I have now added support for the optional minerals and vitamins.
Is there any way to copy & paste the label so youcan print a sticker page with multiple labels on it?
Could you add Pottassium?
This software is really helpful! Thanks for creating it. I am trying to tweak my label to look like others I see out there, and there are two things I’ve noticed:
1) I can’t use a fraction like 1/2 in the serving size. This seems to be the customary format that I see on food labels, rather than the decimal format (0.5) that I have to use with this tool.
2) I can’t put in “about __ ” in the serving slot, as I see on other labels, for a package that doesn’t divide quite evenly into whole servings but has a little left over.
Just a couple of suggested tweaks. Again, thanks for all you’ve done to create and share this software!
Alan,
You should try to print the label to pdf (see this post for more info on this). You can then print several on a page with the software Acrobat Reader.
Julian,
Potassium is on my to-do list. As soon as I find the time, I will add it!
Laura,
Thank you for your suggestions! I will make sure to add the option to input fractional serving size and “about” when I have the chance.
[…] More info on the free nutrition facts labeling tool… […]
Julian, Laura,
I have added now support for polyunsaturated fat, monounsaturated fat and potassium, as well as the possibility to input “about” and “1/2″ in the serving size field.
I’m about to start a small food business out of my home in California and would like to know if this shopncook sofware will be able to generate a Nutrition Fact label (or info that can be placed on the label) by me just entering the contents of a recipe like fish (the type- salmon for example), poultry (chicken for example), sugar, garlic, table salt, honey, spices (thyme, white pepper for example), etc. Thanks.
Keith,
You can compute that nutritional analysis of your recipes with Shop’NCook software. However, I cannot guarantee that the resulting values will be compliant with the NLEA/FSIS regulations.
In particular, at the time being, the software does not take into account nutrient losses due to processing, resulting in a loss of precision of the calculation. I suggest you contact directly the USDA to confirm the requirements.
Can you please send me the formula to calculate PERCENTAGE daily value from daily value in grams or milligarms???
Navdeep, the percentages are calculated from the recommended daily value listed in section 101.9 of the FDA code (see the link in the post).
this is very good website. thank you for your kindness to share this. i’m doing the design of label which need nutrition fact on it. now i have information for each product, but my designer said they need nutrition fact panel of each product to be saved in word file, so they can just copy and paste to each label (they design by using photoshop/AI. Please suggest how we can do this. thank you for your prompt reply.
Jeed, first print the label to pdf. You can after convert the pdf file to Word format. If you search on Google for “pdf to doc”, you will find a number of free solutions to do that.
Thank you for your prompt reply. One more question. Is that true that Nutrition Fact was used only for food exported to USA and Canada while another countries used “Nutrition Information”. Please help me again on this matter. Thank you very much. JEED
This is a great tool!, can you please make Canadian ones too?
Thanks
Kevin,
I have finally made a Canadian version of the nutrition facts panel.
I’m looking for recipe software with cost and label. Would be very interested in function to populate nutrition form directly from Shop’NCook.
Kali,
This function is in consideration for the next release of Shop’NCook Pro. I will let you know when it becomes available.
Thanks so much for all your work and your gracious sharing of this incredible tool! I would love to be notified of the next release of Shop’NCook Pro and hope that it allows for the labels to be created directly. It would also be great if it could list the ingredients. Again, thanks so much for what you do!
Shawn,
I have finally added to the nutrition facts label the option to list the ingredients and the allergens.
How exactly can we get the actual weight/quantity of a specific vitamin in a food product?
Anonymous,
You can find the list of the RDI (Recommended Daily Intake) for selected minerals and vitamins in the FDA code, section 101.9 (see the post for a link). They correspond to 100% on the food labels. You can scale the RDI to get the actual quantities.
For example, if you have “vitamin A 50%” on the food label, it corresponds to half the RDI of 5000 IU for vitamin A, that is 2500 IU.
hi,
the program is great, however, some of the nutrients require the word “less than” if the values are rounded off. this is according to the FDA Federal Code. also in the serving per container panel, they required to put the word “about” if the value is also rounded off. just a thought…
thanks!
This is awesome! Do you know of a way to shrink it down a little bit to fit on a 3″ cookie AND is there a label out there that something like this would work on?
Anyway, fabulous job!!!!!!!
I’ve been looking all over for this, but I need a canadian version (french/english). PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE.
Mitch,
I have finally created an online tool to create bilingual nutrition facts panels for Canada. You can access it here.
Mitch,
I will try to add support for Canada. It would help though if somebody could give me a link to the official requirement (size of the labels, format, font, etc.) for Canadian food labels. I spent hours a while back looking for it fruitlessly…
Hello,
I would like the ingredients to be listed on the nutrition label. But I cannot figure out how.
I have also tried nutritiondata.com.
Do you have any suggestions
Thank you
Sincerly
Emily b
Emily,
It is not yet possible to list the ingredients of the nutritional label. I plan to add this functionality soon.
I have now added the possibility to add the ingredients as well as the allergens to the nutrition facts panel.
You’ve got a great thing going here. Keep up the good work. But for the small USDA inspected plants that have to comply with the new nutritional laberling rule effective January 2012 there is only one thing missing on the Nutrition Facts panel generator for us to make fact panels for whole meat cuts. (as far as I can see) We need to have Calories from Fat added to our panels to comply with USDA’s regulations. It is stated above that this can be inputted but cannot see it on the input form. SO if it wouldn’t be too much trouble adding this would help myself and so many of the other small USDA inspected establishments in the country. Thank you for considering it.
Hello, would you provide the nutrition facts for Canada version?
Thank you.
would these 2 links help for canadian nutrition facts?
Thank you.
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/label-etiquet/nutrition/index-eng.php
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/labeti/quest/tablee.shtml
Mei,
I have finally made a bilingual nutrition facts labelling tool for Canada. I was VERY optimistic in thinking that “a free day” would be sufficient to adapt the US tool – Canadian regulations are way more complicated than the US ones – but I finally reached the end. I hope it will be useful.
Thank you Mei.
The second link contains the info I was looking for. I am busy right now, but I will work on the Canadian labeling tool when I find a free day for this.
Can you prevent the software from rounding off the last digit of calories in the nutrition label.
Thanks
Rob,
I cannot prevent the rounding, as it is required by the regulations:
Mathilde,
Happy Holidys.
Did you get a chance to add Canadian label requirement to your system yet? I was going to buy your system but I am waiting on this functionality.
cheers
J
John,
Happy Holidays!
I didn’t yet add the Canadian label requirements to my system. I will start again working on it end of January I think and I’ll look into it.
John,
Several years have passed by, but I was finally able to complete the Canadian nutrition facts panel maker.
I am from new Zealand and what you have done with this website is exactly what we desperately need. The websites for the nz regulations are http://www.nzfsa.govt.nz
http://Www.foodsafety.govt.nz as well as maf.govt.nz . The labelling consultants charge approx $250.00 nz per label or $100+gst per hour it takes them to do the label. You should start something like this for us here and you would be eternally blessed for your efforts
Thank you for the links to New Zealand regulations.
I am busy now, but I plan to work again on the label tool in June. I will see what I can do then.
I am in the beginning stages of brainstorming my product from home to the store shelves. I have great recipes for gluten-free, casein-free and can teach how to cook them; however, I have no knowledge on what the rules are for packaging and selling them. If you would be so kind to steer me in the direction in the steps necessary for packaging for resale (dry mixes, sauces, re-packaged ‘to go’ condiments) I would be greatly appreciative.
Maybe the following links and the resources there will be useful to you:
http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/GuidanceDocuments/FoodLabelingNutrition/default.htm
http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/default.htm
Canadian format please!! Would be extremely helpful!
Your tool is so wonderful.
Elaine,
I have finally completed a bilingual nutrition facts panel maker for Canada.
Why do all the nutrients come in italicized font? I have never seen that on product labels.
The nutrients shouldn’t be italicized. Only the “trans” in “trans fat” appears in italic. Which browser are you using? Also, make sure you don’t override the web page font in your settings.
I tried both IE and Chrome, and in both whenever something shows BOLD it is also in ITALICS. Not sure why it happens. I haven’t changed any browser setting. It’s a Windows 7 OS.
Is there anything that can be done to fix the fonts? In IE and Chrome all the bold letters show in italics. In Firefox, nothing shows in bold letters. This is the only program I’ve found anywhere that can generate nutrition fact labels, and it’s a shame it doesn’t display properly.
i am looking to make some (50) canadian nutritional labels but i do not need to use the program after i am done these. do you have a suggestion for me to make these nutritional facts for my product in canada
I plan to add soon support for Canadian nutrition facts labels.
I don’t know if it is still actual, but I have finally completed the Canadian bilingual nutrition facts tool.
If it is to label actual food products, make sure to check however the regulations on how to make compliant labels.
This is just what the doctor ordered – great job and thanks for making it available.
My question is this: Is there anyway I can get this program to run on my local computer instead of on the web? I notice it looks like you have been working on it for at least 5+ years but I am concerned about what would happen to my process if the site went away. I would be happy to pay for a downloadable version of the program that would run on a Windows PC (or maybe even a Linux box).
Randy,
My next project is to add the nutritional facts labeling tool to my software Shop’NCook Pro. I am just done with release of my new mobile app and will start working on it in a couple of weeks.
Let me know if you are interested in participating in the beta testing when it is available.
I agree with Randy, I would also like to have an offline version of the NF tool, even if it costs money. I’m also hoping the font problem will be fixed at some point as well.
I want to know if I am making a baking cake mix and selling without eggs and milk – do I need to include those items within the nutritional value on the package since they will need to be used to complete the recipe?
You need only give the nutritional values for the product as packaged (i.e. without eggs and milk), but it is recommended to add a second column to the nutritional facts giving the values of the prepared product. For more information, see question L 23 of the FDA guidance on nutrition labeling.
Shop’NCook free nutrition labeling tool does not allow at the time being for a second column of nutritional values. If there is enough interest, I will add this feature.
I love what you have done here. There is so much out there and seems so complicated. You have solved most of the issues we are having with getting nutritional information on our products. When will the NF be incorporated into the Shop N’Cook PRO software. We will be purchasing the software and are wondering if and when that will be made an addition and how does it get added?
Would even be interested in the Beta Testing.
Thank you
Thank you for your message!
I am working now on a new version of Shop’NCook Pro that includes the nutritional labeling tool. I will contact you when the beta testing starts.
Thank you!!!
Hi Mathilde,
Your article is very informative and helpful. Your tool is really good and I want to know more information about canadian product label.
Thanks
http://www.thelabelcompany.com
Emily,
I have completed the nutrition facts maker for Canada. Make sure to check also the information here.
[…] since I created an online tool to make nutrition facts panels for the US, I have received numerous requests to create a similar one for Canada. I took finally the time to […]