How to Make Nutrition Labels: A Step-by-Step Guide for Food Makers Creating a nutrition label can overwhelm beginners, especially when you have to direct through FDA regulations. Tools like nutrition label creators bring good news to food makers who struggle with this vital step. These tools can produce FDA-compliant nutrition facts panels in an hour or less. Retailers must have nutrition fact panels on their products if they exceed $50,000 in food sales and $500,000 in total sales. The FDA updates the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act regularly based on current dietary research. This makes compliance a moving target for food manufacturers. Simple understanding of nutrition facts labels helps consumers make informed choices about your products. These labels include serving information, calories, nutrients and Percent Daily Values (%DV). Let us show you how to create nutrition labels for your food products. We’ll explore free recipe nutrition calculators and share design best practices. Your labels will be both compliant and work well. Our piece covers everything you need – from making nutrition labels for homemade foods to commercial products. What Goes Into a Nutrition Label Image Source: FDA You need to understand everything in a nutrition label before creating one for your products. The FDA controls these labels so consumers get standardized details about their food purchases. Serving size and calories Every nutrition label starts with serving information. Serving sizes are standardized to help you compare similar foods easily. These sizes show what people usually eat—not what they should eat [1]. To name just one example, lasagna shows one cup as a serving, while ice cream usually lists ⅔ cup [2]. The first things to check are serving size and servings per container. You’ll need to multiply all nutritional values if you eat an entire package with multiple servings [3]. If you eat two cups of lasagna, you’re getting double the calories and nutrients listed for one serving. Calories show up in large, bold font to catch your eye quickly [4]. This helps you spot calorie information right away. While 2,000 calories per day serves as a basic guide, your needs change based on your age, sex, height, weight, and how active you are [1]. Macronutrients and %DV The nutrition facts label must show these key macronutrients [1]: Total fat (including saturated fat and trans fat) Cholesterol Sodium Total carbohydrates (including dietary fiber, total sugars, and added sugars) Protein Each nutrient shows its amount in grams or milligrams, and most display a Percent Daily Value (%DV). This percentage tells you what one serving adds to your daily diet [1]. The %DV makes nutrient information easy to understand without any math. Here’s a simple rule: 5% DV or less means it’s low, while 20% DV or more means it’s high [1]. Your best bet is to pick foods with more dietary fiber, vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium, but less saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars [4]. Some nutrients like trans fat and total sugars don’t show a %DV on the label [1]. The Daily Values now match current nutrition science, with new reference values that include 50g for added sugars and 28g for dietary fiber [5]. Vitamins, minerals, and allergens Labels must list vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium [2]. These nutrients appear because many Americans don’t get enough of them [4]. Food makers can add other vitamins and minerals if they want, especially when they add them to food or make health claims [5]. Beyond nutrition info, labels must show major food allergens. Nine major food allergens cause most severe allergic reactions: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts, soybeans, and sesame [6]. You’ll find allergens clearly marked in parentheses after the ingredient or in a separate “Contains” statement [6]. Food Scan Genius app takes an AI-first approach with 35 unique filters that help spot potential allergens while shopping. Unlike Yuka and OpenFoodFacts, it gives you customized details based on your dietary needs, making it much easier to understand nutrition labels when you’re shopping. Creating accurate nutrition labels needs careful attention to these components. Your products’ nutrition labels must have all required elements with accurate calculations to help consumers make informed choices and keep your business following FDA rules. How to Create a Nutrition Label from a Recipe Creating nutrition labels from your recipes is easier than you think. The right tools can help you make professional nutrition facts panels without any special training or expensive lab tests. Use a recipe nutrition calculator free tool You can create nutrition labels from your recipes with several free online tools. These calculators connect to food databases and give you accurate nutritional information: MyFoodData has a complete recipe nutrition calculator to build and edit recipes quickly [7]. You’ll see nutritional results right away as you add ingredients. RecipeCard.io lets you paste your ingredient list and get a nutritional breakdown that matches USDA guidelines [8]. HappyForks shows detailed nutrition facts once you copy and paste ingredients from any website [9]. VeryWell has an accessible interface where you paste ingredients, adjust servings, and get a complete nutrition label in seconds [10]. Food Scan Genius goes beyond this with its AI-first approach. The app differs from Yuka and OpenFoodFacts by offering 35 unique filters. These filters help spot potential allergens and create customized nutrition information based on your dietary needs. Input ingredients and quantities The next step after picking your tool is to enter your recipe details: Search for ingredients in the database using full or partial names [7]. Select the closest match from what you find [7]. Specify quantities with whole numbers, decimals, or fractions (e.g., 2 apples, 1/2 cup flour) [7]. Choose appropriate serving sizes from dropdown menus or make custom ones [7]. The best results come from including every ingredient—even tiny amounts of seasonings and additives [11]. Tools like LabelCalc let you save common combinations as “preps” to use in future recipes [5]. This saves time when you work with similar ingredients. Recipe calculators also show how each ingredient affects