OS105

FactsReady

Nutrition Label Maker for Small Food Brands

Getting your product onto a store shelf, a wholesale account or an online marketplace? You'll usually need a Nutrition Facts label. This page walks you through making one, from the recipe card to a file your printer can use.

With no USDA key on the server, search stays on invented example foods. Nothing here is a real product.

No ingredients yet. Search for oats, load the example batch, or type per-100 g values yourself.

After you add ingredients, a blank cooked weight uses their total weight. Retention factors are not applied.

Allergen declaration

The nine major food allergens follow the FD&C Act list, including sesame, and FDA's January 2025 guidance on tree nuts. Name the animal for milk and eggs. Name the fish and the crustacean. Name the specific nut.

Major food allergens

Includes any ingredient that contains protein from these foods.

Nuts that are not major allergens

FDA's January 2025 guidance took these out of the major-allergen list. They can stay in the ingredient list. They do not appear in Contains.

Nothing is written yet. Check the allergens that are in the food, then write the Contains statement.

Before you start: do you need one?

Packaged food sold in the U.S. needs nutrition labeling unless an exemption applies (21 CFR 101.9(a), (j)). Common exemptions for small businesses:

  • Small retailers. This covers sales made directly to consumers by a business with annual gross sales of $500,000 or less, or annual food sales to consumers of $50,000 or less. No FDA notice is needed (101.9(j)(1)).
  • Low-volume products. The business must have fewer than 100 full-time-equivalent employees and sell fewer than 100,000 units of the product in the U.S. per year. You file a notice with FDA every year. Firms that aren't importers, have fewer than 10 FTEs and sell fewer than 10,000 units of the product don't need to file (101.9(j)(18)).

An exemption is lost if the label, labeling or advertising carries a nutrient content claim, a health claim or other nutrition information. Examples are "high protein," "low sugar," or a carb count on your website. Details: Do I need a nutrition label?

What to have ready

  • Your recipe in weights. Grams are best. Cups and spoons work if you know the gram weight.
  • The final batch weight after baking or cooking.
  • Supplier spec sheets for anything unusual, such as a custom chocolate, a seasoning blend or a protein powder. You can type those values in by hand.
  • Your package size, and whether the product is sold as pieces (cookies, bars), as a large item cut into portions (a pie, a loaf), or in bulk (granola, sauce).
  • Which ingredients add sugar: table sugar, honey, syrups, juice concentrates.

Making the label in five steps

  1. Build the recipe.
    • Search USDA FoodData Central for each ingredient, or add it manually.
    • Prefer the generic "Foundation" or "SR Legacy" entries. Branded entries come from other companies' rounded labels.
  2. Enter yield and package details.
    • The finished weight, the product form, and the net weight of the package.
  3. Choose the product category.
    • FDA sets a "reference amount customarily consumed" for each category (21 CFR 101.12(b)). It drives the serving size.
    • For example, cookies have a 30 g reference amount. A 14 g cookie gives a serving of 2 cookies (28g).
  4. Review the preview.
    • Check the serving size wording (e.g., "2 cookies (28g)"), the servings per container and every nutrient line.
    • The check sheet shows where each number came from.
  5. Buy and download ($12).
    • You get print-ready SVG and PDF files and the check sheet, with 7 days in this browser to edit and 30 days to re-download that label.

Getting it printed

  • Keep it at 100% size or larger. FDA sets minimum type sizes: 8 pt for nutrient lines, 16 pt for "Calories" and 22 pt for the calorie number (101.9(d)(1)(iii)). Shrinking the file can break those minimums.
  • One color on a light background. The label must be all black, or one color, on a white or other neutral contrasting background (101.9(d)(1)(i)).
  • Vector files stay sharp. Send your designer or printer the SVG or PDF, not a screenshot.
  • The label isn't the whole package. You also need:
    • a statement of identity
    • net quantity of contents
    • an ingredient list
    • the name and place of business
    • allergen declarations (allergen guide).

The Nutrition Facts label covers only nutrition.

Who this maker is for

  • Cottage and home bakers moving into retail or wholesale.
  • Small snack, sauce, bar and beverage brands.
  • Co-packers and consultants who need one-off labels.

If you sell a dietary supplement, use the Supplement Facts label maker. Supplements follow different rules.

Limits you should know about

The maker supports the standard vertical label and the two-column per serving / per container label. It flags formats it can't draw yet and stops before drawing them:

  • tabular and linear layouts for small packages
  • the simplified format
  • infant and toddler labels
  • "as prepared" columns.

The numbers are calculated estimates from ingredient data, not laboratory results. You, as the manufacturer, are responsible for the accuracy of your label. See the disclaimer.

Looking for the calculation details? See the Nutrition Facts label generator and the rounding rules reference.