4 Reasons Why Your Food Label Serving Size May Not Measure Up1. It doesn’t list household and metric measurement.

When the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) was implemented, it emphasized using household or visual measures. Prior to the NLEA, most servings sizes were displayed in ounces and consumers were unable to visualize how much product that represented.

You don’t want your consumers confused and guessing about how many grams or ounces are in a cup, or whether a cup of flour converts to the same amount in grams as a cup of milk. Metric serving sizes also allow for greater accuracy. For instance, a teaspoon of baking soda would have to declare 0.14 ounce if the US weight system was used.

Food labeling regulations in the United States require manufacturers to list both the household measurement and the metric measurement on their package labels. For example, the serving size might be listed as 1 cup (_g), 1 slice (_g), or 2 oz (_g/_inch slice). Another option is to list the ounce or fluid ounce along with the household and metric measurements. For example: 1 cup (_g/_oz).

The labeling experts at AIB International see a large number of package labels that do not include the household measure (e.g., 1 cup, 1 slice, etc.). Those that most often lack the visual unit of measure are the ones that use “ounce” as the household measure. If a manufacturer decides to display the serving size as 2 oz (_g/_inch slice), that “_inch slice” visual measurement is required. Depending on the product, the visual measurement may be “about ¼ cup” or “about ½ pickle”! Many labels that our experts review simply list “1 oz (28g)” and leave it at that, but that doesn’t quite cut it.

2. The servings per container is listed as a whole number, but it’s not supposed to be.

Whole numbers. Rounding. Greater than, less than. It sounds like we’re back in an elementary school math class, and that can be scary! But, it doesn’t have to be. Food labeling regulations in the United States provide pretty clear direction on how to list the servings per container quantity on food package labels.

If more than five servings are included in the package, round to the nearest whole number to indicate the amount.

If between two and five servings are included in the package, you should round the number to the nearest 0.5 serving.

If less than two servings are included, the number of servings must be listed as “1” or “about 2”. Single-serving containers may omit the “servings per container” declaration.

*For any of these situations, use the term “about” anytime you use rounding for the servings per container.

3. The serving size for a single-serve container shows two servings when FDA considers it a single-serving package.

The FDA’s food labeling regulations establish Reference Amounts Customarily Consumed (RACC) for 139 product categories. These values represent the amount of food customarily consumed at one eating occasion. Manufacturers must use the information provided to determine a specific serving size for their products.

The first important step in establishing an appropriate serving size is to determine if your product is in a single-serving container. If it is, the entire package will be a serving. If contents are less than 200% of the RACC, it must be declared as one serving. One exception to this rule is that if the food product’s RACC is greater than 100

grams and contents are greater than 150%, but less than 200%, the serving size may be declared as 1 or 2.

4. It doesn’t use consumer- friendly fractions.

Math again?! This time we’re talking about fractions. The average consumer isn’t going to eat an entire cherry pie or an entire half-gallon of ice cream in one sitting. It’s the food manufacturer’s responsibility to determine the serving size for large unit products and then list it in a way that’s easy for consumers to read and understand.

For example, you wouldn’t list “1 slice” as the serving size for an uncut whole pie because the slice-size is relative, and might largely depend on how hungry the person is! Instead, the serving size can be listed as a fraction, but not just any fraction…it needs to be consumer-friendly and divisible by 2 or 3.

Consumer-friendly fractions: 1/2; 1/3; 1/4; 1/5; 1/6 Not so consumer-friendly fractions: 1/7; 1/11; 1/13; 1/14

It also has to be a division that yields a piece that is closest to the RACC so that consumers can compare like products – a piece of pumpkin pie versus a piece of cherry pie. By following the serving size rules, it theoretically removes size variation so that consumers can do a direct comparison between products.

Let’s say you need to determine serving-size for a layer cake. The RACC is 80 grams. The weight of your cake is 24 oz (1.5 lb), which converts to 680.4 g. Divide that number by the RACC (80g) and you have 8.505 or slices. • 8.505 = 9 which is a consumer-friendly fraction• 680.4g / 9 = 75.6 g (round up to 76)

So, the serving size you would list on the package label in this scenario is 1/9 cake (76 g).

Labeling of FDA Regulated Food Products

April 21-22 Chicago, IL

Display labeling elements on your food packages that meet every detail of the latest FDA labeling requirements.

After this seminar you’ll know: • What regulatory changes impact your packages• How to avoid common labeling mistakes • What labeling elements are needed on your

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