If you’re planning on starting a small business that involves selling any type of packaged food products such as breads, cereals, canned and frozen foods, snacks, desserts, or drinks, you need to familiarize yourself with the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA), and the Nutrition Labelling and Education Act (NLEA).
Basically, these laws require most foods to carry nutrition labels and requires food labels that carry nutrient content claims and certain health messages to comply with specific requirements.
Some of the information required on these labels for products sold in the United States (as the laws are different for products sold in other countries) is:
Statement of identity
Net quantity of ingredients
Nutrition facts
Ingredient statement
Manufacturer’s statement
Additionally, if any of the eight major food allergens are present in the food, they must be declared; total net quantity of the item must be present in both American Units (ounce, pound, fluid ounce, pint, gallon) as well as metric (gram, kilogram, milliliter, liter); name and address of the packer,
manufacturer or distributor should appear; nutrition declarations, at the very minimum, of calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrate and protein should be included; if multiple languages are used on the label, one of the languages must be English; and the label must also comply with specific text and size requirements.
Finally, product dating is required if your business sells infant formula.
Please be aware there may be additional state or local requirements depending on where your product is sold, besides what is required under the Federal Law.
