How to label salad jars for US retail sale

The short answer

A sealed US salad jar in a fridge is packaged food: identity, net weight, ingredients (greens, dressing, cheese, grains, nuts), FALCPA names, Nutrition Facts in most grocery and meal-prep cases, and an address. A chalkboard behind the fridge does not travel in the bag.

Where this shows up in a real kitchen

Meal-prep and café grab-and-go jars look like restaurant food until the lid goes on before anyone chooses it. Caesar dressing (egg, fish, milk, sometimes soy), feta (milk), spelt (wheat), almonds and sesame crunch are the usual misses. A “build your own” station packed by staff at 7am is still packed before selection.

The US rule

Packaged before the customer chooses it → FDA packaged-food labeling. Made to order in front of them → restaurant-style allergen info. FALCPA names on the sealed jar. Cottage-food often excludes refrigerated salads.

How to apply it

List the jar from the bottom up as packed, in weight order. Declare milk, egg, fish, wheat, tree nuts, sesame, soy as present. Weigh the jar after filling. Recalculate when Thursday’s jar adds smoked salmon (fish) or a tahini drizzle (sesame).

1. Decide sealed-ahead vs made-to-order.
2. Write this SKU’s dressing and topping specs.
3. Declare the majors in the sealed jar.
4. Put net weight on grocery and subscription jars.

Worked example

12 oz “Kale Caesar jar”: kale, chicken, croutons (wheat), parmesan (milk), Caesar dressing (egg, anchovy, milk). Contains: wheat, milk, egg, fish. A vegan sesame-crunch jar from the same fridge: tahini (sesame), almonds — Contains: sesame, almond. Same shelf, different majors.

One lid template with Contains: milk, egg, fish, wheat, soy, peanut, tree nuts, sesame

A dump of all nine majors on every jar is not FALCPA compliance. Name what is in this jar. Use an advisory only for a real shared-line risk you have not already declared as an ingredient.

Questions