Food labeling for granola and cereal in the US

The short answer

US granola pouches need identity, net weight, ingredients in predominance order, tree-nut and wheat and sesame names when present, Nutrition Facts with an honest cereal serving, and a business address. Honey and maple go on the added-sugars line even if the front says “only real maple”.

Where this shows up in a real kitchen

Granola brands fight over clusters and “protein”. They forget pecans in a “maple crunch”, wheat in malted clusters, and sesame in a seed mix. Serving size games make calories look like a tablespoon nobody eats.

The US rule

FDA packaged food. RACC for breakfast cereals/granola drives serving size. FALCPA for nuts, wheat, milk (if yogurt clusters), sesame, soy lecithin. Added sugars include syrups you add. BE disclosure may apply to soy or corn ingredients.

How to apply it

Weigh oats vs nuts vs syrup. If pecans are third by weight they are third in the list, not buried after “natural flavors”. Declare pecan. Set serving from RACC, not from a 90-calorie fantasy. Recalculate when you add coconut chips.

1. Sort the batch by weight, oats first if they dominate.
2. Name every tree nut and sesame seed in the mix.
3. Set Nutrition Facts from RACC and the current syrup level.
4. Place net weight on the pouch front.

Worked example

12 oz “Maple pecan granola”: oats, maple syrup, pecan pieces, oil, salt. Contains: pecan. Added sugars reflect maple. Serving “⅔ cup (55 g)” or whatever the RACC math says — not “a handful”. Coconut version adds coconut as a tree-nut declaration.

Front-of-pouch “nut-free facility” with pecans in the window

A window is a declaration you did not mean to make. The Contains line has to agree with what people can see and eat.

Questions